LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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THE 



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GOSPEL IN THE TRM'S 



OPINIONS ON COMMON THINGS, 



AND 



Fraternal Methodism 



BY 



ALEXANDER CLARK, 

EDITOR OF "THE METHODIST RECORDER," AND AUTHOR OF "THE OLD LOG 
SCHOOL-HOUSE," " SCHOOL-DAY DIALOGUES," " WORK-DAY CHRIS- 
TIANITY," "STARTING OUT," "RIPPLES ON THE RIVER," 
"SUMMER RAMBLES IN EUROPE," ETC. 



^1° 



" For thete is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, 
and that the tender branch thereof will not cease." — Job xiv, 7. 



■fl j < 6.315 L.. 

\% h 1870. ^ 



CINCINNATI : HITCHCOCK & WALDEN. 
NEW YORK: PHILLIPS & HUNT. 

PITTSBURGH, PA: JAMES ROBISON, 
METHODIST PROTESTANT BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 

1879. 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868. by 

J. W. DACGII ADA Y & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the 
&ioceru District of Pennsylvania. 



j|ellou;sI\ip of |]ome, ^jjjork, mxct ^jjorsltip* 



TO 



WILLIAM McCALL CLARK, 

OF PHILADELPHIA, 



^hi$ Volume 



IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 



33s *6* author. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



General Introduction 7 

fVt I. 

THE GOSPEL IN THE TREES. 

I. Apple 17 

II. Cedar 41 

III. Olive 63 

IV. Myrtle 88 

V. Willow 110 

VI. Palm 133 

Part II. 

COMMON THINGS. 

I. Ratn 1G3 

II. Snow 184 

III. Haii 204 

IV. Dress 230 

V. E very-day Glory 250 

VI. Once and Forever 274 

VII. Two Worlds Made One , 292 



5 



6 



Contents. 



Part III. 
FRATERNAL METHODISM. 

Page. 

Introductory Note 327 

Addresses: 

To General Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, 
1876 331 

To Primitive Methodist Conference, England, 1876... 337 

To Methodist New Connection Conference, England, 

1876 353 

To United Methodist Free Church Assembly, Eng- 
land, 1876 370 

To British Wesleyan Conference, England, 1876 391 

To General Conference Methodist Episcopal Church, 

South, 1874 398 

To General Conference Methodist Episcopal Church, 

South, 1878 406 

To President Hayes, 1877 419 



Illustrations, 

The Apple Tree 19 

Cedar 53 

Olive (branch and fruit) 65 

Willow Ill 

Palm 132 

Rain 162 

Snow 185 

The Prodigal's Return 242 

The Two Worlds 293 

John Wesley, the Founder of Methodism 330 




INTRODUCTION. 

By the Rev. William Reeves, D.D., 
President of the Pittsburgh Conference. 

]HE productions of the pulpit, when published, 
if not generally, have often, been unpopular. 
For this fact a reason must exist somewhere ; 
and surely it can not be found in the nature of the 
subjects: these are so overwhelmingly important that 
it would seem next to impossible that they should not, 
more or less, engross the attention of all men. The being, 
perfections, and character of God, together with his re- 
lations to mankind ; his revealed will ; his holy law ; his 
glorious Gospel ; the origin, apostacy, redemption, and 
final destiny of man, — are all subjects of such transcen- 
dent interest to every rational soul, that it is marvelous, 
indeed, that discourses on these grand truths should fail 
to secure attention. Besides : — see what an infinite variety 
of topics these all-absorbing subjects and facts of the 
Bible suggest ! And these are to be enforced by di- 
vine authority, exhibited in dilferent points of light, and 
illustrated the tropology of the universe 1 The subject 



8 



Intr od uction. 



matter of the ministers of the Gospel, is absolutely inex- 
haustible, and should always appear fresh and new. 
Why then should a sermon on Salvation, preached or 
printed, be either dull or dry ? 

Assuming that preachers who publish their opin- 
ions are par excellent with other authors in the requisite 
qualifications for their work, having such wide and 
fruitful fields from which to gather their golden pro- 
ductions, if they fail to interest the reading public, is 
not the fault in the manner of communication, rather 
than in the subject matter of the communication it- 
self ? This thought is penned in the face of the fact 
that multitudes of men and women have no relish for 
real religion. For people of all shades of religious 
sentiment will go to hear an able preacher. Thousands 
of speculative skeptics would be delighted to listen to 
the logical arguments of Asa Shinn, the entrancing 
eloquence of T. H. Stockton, the angelic sweetness and 
persuasion of a Summerfield, the fervent zeal of a Spur- 
geon, or the religious earnestness of a Brooks, or a 
Ta Image. Then why not read the sermons of earnest 
authors ? True they are without the charms of the living 
voice ; so with other publications. Doctrinal discus- 
sions, to be sure, however important, do not generally 
interest the masses of the people. And let us sanction 
it or censure it, as we may, still the fact remains. But 
experimental and practical Christianity, ought to be, 
and can be, made interesting to the human mind. 



Intr od uction. 



9 



True it is, however, that, with a large class of readers 
of the present age, light literature, and that of a fictitious 
character, is the chief commodity called for : these 
intellectual and religious dyspeptics are incapable of 
either relishing or digesting any solid or nurturing 
mental aliment. Still, there are multitudes living in 
the land, both in the Church and out of it, who are not 
hopelessly infected with this literary epidemic, who 
eagerly embrace every opportunity to profit by the 
productions of the press, even though they spring from 
the pulpit. 

Here, then, is a publication for the people, with the 
modest title of " The Gospel in the Trees: with Pulpit 
Opinions on Common Things," the author of which 
was my pastor the first year of his regular ministry, in 
1862, in "New Brighton, Pennsylvania. It is both 
natural and proper, therefore, that I should notice the 
work by this word of Introduction, which duty I do 
with real and solid satisfaction and pleasure. 

But to the book itself ; and it speaks for itself. Gotten 
up in the finest of style, its external garniture is a 
suitable index to the internal goodness and grace it 
contains. Suffer me to pen a few particulars : — 

And first, the author is unique in his treatment and 
applications of topics. The thoughts, caught from 
Nature, the Bible, the Times, and the People, are made 
his own ; and new in figure and adornment is the drapery 
with which they arc clothed. And this is always a 



10 



Introduction. 



cause of usefulness and success. His manhood is firm 
and bold, though modest and mild ; and he dwells on the 
practical applications of divine truth to men's hearts 
and lives, rather than the discussion of theological 
theories and doctrinal distinctions and differences. He 
thinks and speaks, as one accountable alone to God ; and, 
urging all men to a recognition of their individuality, 
hints that the Bible and Christ are distinct and peculiar 
to every soul in the race. 

Another feature on the face of this subject, is, the 
adaptation of these discourses to the demands of the 
day. It is not simply truth of any sort, however sacred 
it may be, and earnestly presented, that succeeds ; but 
truth which stands related to times and seasons. This 
is the most conclusive argumentum ad liominem — the 
irresistible logic of facts, and facts before the people's 
eyes. And this course is sanctioned by the Saviour, 
"who spake as never man spake." See his inimitable 
parables, the facts of which were borrowed from the 
common avocations and occurrences of every-day life. 
Every thing visible, tangible, and audible, was used to 
illustrate the Gospel and the duties and privileges of 
vital religion. In this course, then, our author aims to 
tread in the footsteps of the Great Teacher himself. 

Again : the style of these sermons may be denomi- 
nated discursive description. Mr. Clark is not a polemic ; 
he possesses no taste for speculative divinity : he does 
not attempt scholastic sermonizing ; he is not at 



Introduction. 



11 



ease in homiletics. But this he has — an instinctive 
sense of the beautiful. All nature to him is one great 
garden ; his forte is floral, and in his view the Gospel 
has charms which ought to win every human soul to 
Christ. 

The writer confesses the fact, that while he himself 
is the antipode of this — a tame, plodding doctrinaire — 
his mind admires, and his heart appreciates the 
beautiful visions brought to view in such discourses as 
these and others unpublished. Moreover, our authof 
is free and outnspoken ; pointed in reproof ; strikes 
any where and every where at the popular sins of the 
day ; so that there is strong sentiment as well as savory 
meat in his sermons. In this he is a true minister ; 
in his Master's name he utters his message, fearless 
of the frowns, and regardless of the smiles, of his fellow 
men. 

Also, it is observable that Mr. Clark makes frequent 
use of the types and symbols of the Scriptures, and 
paints his pictures from these divine models. Did not 
the ancient seers the same ? Both the major and the 
minor prophets wrote and spoke as they were inspired, 
and according to the visions they beheld, whether of 
weal or woe. Isaiah, the great model and master 
prophet, commences thus: — "The vision of Isaiah the 
son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and 
Jerusalem," etc. And Jeremiah, the weeping or pensive 
prophet, says : — " Moreover the word of the Lokd came 



12 



Intr od uction. 



unto me saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou ? And I 
said, I see a rod of an almond tree," etc. And the 
impetuous prophet Ezekiel, who at the command of 
God, smote with his hand, and stamped with his foot, 
and poured out divine denunciations like a flood ; yet 
even to him — while " among the captives by the river 
of Chebar, the heavens were opened, and he saw visions 
of God." So also, and more, of Daniel, a man so highly 
favored of the Lord. And so with the minor prophets ; 
but the time would fail me to speak of them all. Zecha- 
riah blended vision and symbol. See a splendid specimen 
in his fourth chapter, respecting the u golden candle- 
stick," and the " two olive trees," etc. And all are 
familiar, not only with the logical reasoning of St. Paul, 
the eloquence of Apollos, the point of Peter, the practi- 
calness of James, but the wonderful visions and symbols 
of St. John. Indeed, in him are blended both the 
polemic and the prophet — the defender of the faith, and 
the son of consolation. Why, then, should not modern 
preachers make good practical use of the types and 
symbols, or other figurative passages of Scripture, to 
illustrate and enforce the precious truths of the Gospel ? 
For anagoge afforded some of the sharpest arrows in the 
quiver of the great apostle of the Gentiles. 

A true teacher never descends to the infinitessimal 
resemblances between a figure and a fact. With him a 
figure never goes on " all-fours." He makes a good use 
of a trope, type, or symbol, and leaves it without loath- 



Intr od uction. 



13 



ing or alloy. And thus it is that his figures are always 
fresh and full of interest. 

And net the symbolical and typical parts of the Bible 
alone, but our author treats of the topical also. And 
his selections on these subjects are among the most 
interesting which this wide field affords. For as the 
Horse is, by common consent, regarded as the noblest 
animal in all animated nature ; so the Tree is the prince 
in the vegetable kingdom. And as, from their associa- 
tions, we read of the "Sacred Mountains," and the 
" Sacred Streams," are not the Trees of the Bible worthy 
of the same appellation, and for the same reason ? What 
high honor our Maker bestowed upon the " Tree of Life" 
in the midst of the garden of Eden ? And the first 
precept God gave to man in this trial life, was touch- 
ing the test tree, " the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil." For the health and the salvation of the world 
were placed in connection with these two trees ! The 
inspired penmen, in the days of old, often used the 
tree as a type of a saint. And in that beautiful and 
expressive symbolic vision of the holy waters issuing 
from the temple, by Ezekiel — upon the bank on either 
side of the river, were those emblematic fruit-bearing, 
evergreen trees, whose very leaves were full of meaning 
and for medicine. And the blessed Saviour, in his 
inimitable Sermon on the Mount, in giving a test of the 
genuine Christian, and to expose the spurious, used the 
same similitude. When we look upon the stately trunk, 



14 



Introduction. 



the spreading branches, the beautiful foliage, to say 
nothing of the delicious fruit, of some trees, is it any 
marvel that they should have sacred uses in the Scrip- 
tures ? And others of an humbler growth, and not so 
imposing in appearance, may be still more fragrant and 
fruitful. 

Moreover, different trees have their peculiar charac- 
teristics, in form, location, and habitudes : and in these 
respects they are used for the purposes of illustration 
and adornment, if not of enforcement also, respecting 
the Church. And in this practical application, Mr. 
Clark makes a happy use of them. In this part of the 
book, particularly, the " Gospel in the Trees," the author 
seems to have broken new ground. For, save a few 
seed thoughts scattered abroad in biblical dictionaries, 
and elementary works, as "Brown on the Metaphors," in 
all the range of Biblical literature, so far as I am aware, 
no author has trodden this field before. 

The author of this book breathes a truly catholic 
spirit. With some, perhaps, his Christian liberality may 
seem excessive, if not bordering occasionally on the 
ground of heterodoxy. But let them not take alarm, if 
in the out-pouring of heart-feelings the denominational 
shioboleth be not as audibly and distinctly uttered as 
could be desired ; or if there should be an apparent 
lisping of a technical vowel or consonant, according to 
our creed, on some minor points ; yet if, in general, we 
hear the sweet voice of the language of Canaan, and 



Introduction. 



15 



never a single sentence in the dialect of Ashdod, let our 
fears subside. While Clirist and his cross are the leading 
theme, and we are often conducted to the top of Pisgah, 
let us rejoice, and hope for happy results. 

May I give the religious genealogy of our author ? 
By birth and education a Presbyterian of the strictest 
school ; and by adoption and life a Methodist of the 
republican order. From such a Calvinio-Arminian 
Christian, might we not reasonably look for safe and 
evangelical opinions ? To speak in the language of 
Phrenology, from such prominent indications, may we 
not say that the orthodoxy of such a minister ought, at 
least, to be above suspicion ? And from the same 
premises, from the blending of such religious natures, 
ought we not to expect a little mixture of theological 
thoughts ? Being also freed from some sectarian 
shackles, should we marvel at the repeated rebukes of 
denominational bigotry observable in this book? 
Further, in the providence of God, this anti-sectarian 
spirit, so prominent in his religious youth, was probably 
strengthened, if not intensified, during the formation of 
his ministerial character. Mr. Clark's second field of 
labor, was the junior pastorate of the Church of the New 
Testament, in the city of Philadelphia, in connection 
with Thos. H. Stockton, D. D., a man of God, whose 
mind could not be fettered with denominational restric- 
tions, and the restraints of bodies of divinity ; but with 
lie universal commission of the Saviour in his hand, 



16 



Introduction. 



and the love of Jesus burning in his heart, he longed lo 
embrace all mankind, and press them to his bosom. 
This world-wide sympathy for sinners, while it is not 
opposed to the doctrine of the Methodist Church, but 
in exact accordance with it, doubtless tended to establish 
our author in his course, which was already bordering 
on ultraism, and induced him to neglect the doctrinal 
due-guards, which are considered necessary to a proper 
security against the appearance of error. And then, 
as if to confirm him in his extra-liberal faith, he next 
accepted a call to the pastorate of Union Chapel, in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, at that time an independent Methodist 
congregation, under no Annual or General Conference 
authority, where he remained until appointed by his 
own Conference to his present charge in Pittsburgh. 

I heartily recommend this volume to all classes of 
people, and hope it may have a ready sale, and be 
extensively circulated, as it deserves. 

New Brighton, Pa., Jan. 27, 1868. 

^^Dr. William Reeves passed to his reward in 
April, 1871, lamented by a large household of kindred 

faith. 



ftet I. 

The Gospel in the Trees. 




i. 

THE APPLE TREE. 

As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is 
my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his 
shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to 
my taste. Cant. ii. 3. 

jHERE is seldom a more interesting sight 
than that of a large and spreading apple 
tree, dense in foliage and golden in fruit, 
standing in its perfection, outside the orchard, and 
offering its shade, and fragrance, and fruitage to 
the traveler weary of wandering beneath the hot 
sun. In the oriental lands such a scene has 
peculiar significance. The hungry stranger, seeing 
the inviting apples and the welcome shadow, 
hastens to the refreshment which awaits him, and 
rests, eats, gives thanks, and is strong. 

The word apple grows from a root, which in the 
original signifies fragrance. The term is generic, 

2 ^17 



18 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



and authorities differ in regard to its precise 
application, some believing that it refers to the 
citron, others to the orange, and a few to the 
quince. The most reliable information, however, 
gives the word a meaning in accordance with its 
specific use by modern horticulturists, the desig- 
nation of a fruit different and distinct from the 
three varieties just named. In the book of Joel, 
(i: 12), the apple is classified with the fig tree, the 
vine, the palm, and the pomegranate, as among the 
principal fruit-bearing trees of Palestine. Else- 
where in the Bible the apple is spoken of as a 
valuable and pleasant product ; and it is employed 
to ornament some of the most beautiful imagery in 
the Scriptures, as, for example, in Proverbs, 11 A 
word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures 
of silver." 

The poets of many lands and ages have sung the 
charming beauties of the apple tree, and none 
more sweetly than our own Christian American, 
William Cullen Bryant : — 

Come, let us plant the apple tree ! 

Cleave the tough greensward with the spade ; 

Wide let its hollow bed be made ; 

There gently lay the roots, and there 

Sift the dark mold with kindly care, 




THE APPLE-TREE. 



The Apple. 



21 



And press it o'er them tenderly. 
As round the sleeping infant's feet 
We softly fold the cradle-sheet: 
So plant we the apple tree. 

What plant we in the apple tree? 

Buds, which the breath of summer days 

Shall lengthen into leafy sprays ; 

Boughs, where the thrush with crimson breast, 

Shall haunt and sing and hide her nest. 

We plant upon the sunny lea 
A shadow for the noontide hour, 
A shelter from the summer shower, 

When we plant the apple tree. 

What plant we in the apple tree ? 
Sweets for a hundred flowery springs, 
To load the May wind's restless wings, 
When, from the orchard row, he pours 
Its fragrance through our open doors ; 

A world of blossoms for the bee ; 
Flowers for the sick girl's silent room; 
For the glad infant, sprigs of bloom, 

We plunt with the apple tree. 

What plant we in the apple tree ? 
Fruits that shall swell in sunny June, 
And redden in the August noon, 
And drop, as gentle airs come by 
-That fan the blue September sky ; 

While children, wild with noisy glee, 
Shall scent their fragrance as they pass, 
And search for them the tufted grass 

At the foot of the apple tree. 



But the apple tree, like the other trees of the 
Bible, is illustrative of gospel truth, and may be 



22 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



contemplated in its relation to the trees of the 
wood as an emblem of Christ in his relation to the 
people. 

A tree in Paradise, standing among beautiful, 
fragrant, and fruitful trees, was made the test of 
man's obedience; but it became the occasion of his 
transgression ; and Adam was driven, a sinner, 
without the gates. 

But then a Tree in the outer wilderness was 
planted, the seed of an Eden promise, and 
although a long while appearing, in the fullness of 
time it sprang forth and grew as a root out of a 
dry ground, among deformed, obnoxious and 
barren trees, bearing in its branches a perfect 
cure for the disobedience of a banished race. As 
the first Adam ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, 
and thereby brought death into the world ; so the 
second Adam bore in his own body, on the tree, 
the fruits of man's disobedience, thereby bringing 
life into the world : " For if by one man's offence 
death reigned by one, much more they which 
receive abundance of grace and of the gift of 
righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus 
Christ." 

Everv thing that was lost in Adam shall be 



The Apple. 



23 



regained in Christ for all the heirs of salvation. 
And as man fell by an exercise of his MviW^choosing 
the forbidden fruit ; so is he restored, by an exer- 
cise of his will — by faith — choosing the proffered 
righteousness of Christ ; for in all the plan of 
redemption, man's free agency is honored, because 
it is the crowning excellence of God's last and best 
creation. In the earthly Eden, we see the tree of 
life guarded ; but in the heavenly Eden, we see the 
Tree of Life with saints having the right to 
partake of its fruits within the gates. The far 
separated ends of revelation at last unite. The 
Eden and the Patmos trees touch and blend their 
branches. Paradise is opened; sinners, redeemed, 
enter in ; face answers to face ; the beginning of the 
work of salvation answers to its end ; and the Tree 
of Life bears its immortal fruits beside the crystal 
river which gladdens the city and garden of God. 

Let us consider a few of the characteristics of 
the apple tree, taking it in its nature and relations 
as a type of Christ. 

1. The Apple Tree is a Tender Tree. It re- 
quires the care of culturing hands to protect it 
against the roughness of accident, and the turbu- 
lence of the elements. The young apple tree, frail 



24 The Gospel in the Trees. 



and fragile as a plant in its stalk and branches, 
venturing from its clod to the open air and sun- 
light, comes into the range of storm ; and the 
gardener's eye is over it long before it rises to the 
dignity of blossom-bearing. It has a helpless in- 
fancy, and must be trained up through scorching 
summers, bending storms, and pinching winters, 
before its fibers are matured sufficiently for autumn 
burdens of fruit. 

So Christ appears, as a little child, tender and 
dependent, in Mary's arms. The infant Jesus is 
placed in the nurturing care of an earthly mother. 
God is manifest in the flesh, and assumes humanity 
in its lowest and weakest form, breathing his first 
breath in the chill dampness of a stable , and com- 
ing into the sphere of trial, and toil, and suffering, 
long before he reaches the age of manhood. He 
grows in wisdom and stature as any other human 
being, surrounded by the same alien atmosphere, 
and tempted in every point as other sons of men. 

In lowly Bethlehem, a heavenly purpose becomes 
a tangible fact; in the poor shepherd's home vil- 
lage, humble and obscure, the King Almighty 
becomes a helpless babe. "God becomes his own 
interpreter, and translates his truth into a fact 



The Apple. 



25 



which shall be tender and yet thrilling and power- 
ful in all ages and in all lands." For the central 
theme of Christ's advent and reign is good will to 
men. 

"As a tiny seed in the ground puts forth a stem 
which rises and spreads to a tree, with great boughs 
out-pointing in eveiy direction, bearing leaves and 
blossoms, and fruits, and shades on every side ; so 
the obscure birth of a little, tender babe, has influ- 
enced all history, sacred and secular, before and 
after, and become the exponent of the civilization 
of all nations." 

" See how small room my infant Lord doth take, 
Whom all the world is not enough to hold ! 
Who of his years or of his age hath told ? 
Never such age so young ; never a child so old V 

But see the child ! Those tender little hands 
shall be torn. Those tiny feet shall walk a rough 
and thorny world, and be nailed to the tree. That 
blooming cheek shall be buffeted and spit upon. 
That radiant brow shall be crowned with thorns. 
That delicate flesh shall be mangled and bruised 
and broken. The tenderest heart that ever beat in 
any breast shall bear an unutterable grief. That 
fairest one among ten thousand shall thirst and bo 



26 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



mocked with vinegar, shall agonize, and bow his 
head, and bleed, and die ! 

We have the incidents of the Saviour's birth, of 
his ministiy, and of his death ; but the details of 
his youth are not written. Once, when he is about 
twelve years old, we have a glimpse of him in the 
temple, reasoning with the doctors ; and yet, with 
mental strength to hold unanswering rabbis at ba}', 
he moves in a body still watched and guarded by a 
mother ; for, missing him from her side, she seeks 
him in maternal solicitude, apprehensive that acci- 
dent might have befallen her absent child. 

He passed through childhood to manhood in the 
home of Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, so like 
other young men in appearance, so modest and 
amiable in his life, that he was known as the pious 
mechanic's son, receiving the discipline of family 
training, and admired by all his neighbors for his 
filial obedience and industrious habits. Our Lord 
had a human body just like our own, save that it 
was healthful and perfect from infancy to maturity; 
and none the less so by reason of humble fare, and 
the physical exercise of daily work. Thus he 
taught, by his example, before his sacred ministry 
began, the gospel of human dignity and perfection 



The Apple. 



27 



in lowly life and in honest toil. So educated, he 
acquired the wisdom and stature of a man, tender- 
hearted and gentle-worded, even though his hands 
were hard and his temples bronzed by out-door 
work. He was one of the common people, ready 
to rejoice with those who rejoiced, and to weep 
with those who wept. Tenderness was a distin- 
guishing trait in his character, both as the Son of 
Man, and as the Son of God. In the full vigor of 
his perfected manhood, and in all the words and 
acts of his ministr}' as the anointed of Heaven, he 
was gentle, pitying, merciful, and kind. He never 
outgrew his sympathies. On his way, armed with 
Omnipotence to open the rocky grave of Lazarus, 
he spoke of him as his friend, and wept in broth- 
erly affliction with the bereaved sisters of Bethany. 
The Builder of the Universe, and able to banish 
wrong and sorrow for ever from the remotest cor- 
ner of his creation ; yet, remembering man as a 
responsible moral agent, and looking down from 
Olivet to Jerusalem, he wept over the wicked city. 
On the very cross, upstretched, and bleeding at the 
cruel thrust of the Roman spear, surrounded by 
taunting enemies, he prayed, " Father, forgive 
them : they know not what they do." Looking for 



28 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



the last time down to his mother, houseless and 
homeless as when she first looked down upon his 
infant form in the manger, he bespoke for her a 
friend in his beloved John. was not Christ's a 
tender life ? 

And while Jesus grew in stature until he at- 
tained full maturity of form and feature, the grace 
and dignity and manner of a perfect man, so in 
his mind and heart there was development. His 
blessed faculties expanded ; his divine knowledge 
increased; heavenly strength was communicated. 
There never was error to correct, for there never 
was any liability to sin. But there were the 
maturing and strengthening of all the faculties 
and forces of his life, just as in the case of any 
other youth in the human famil} 1 -. He assumed 
our humanity, — not a better. Gentleness, tender- 
ness, and purity, the possibilities for every man to 
show through his entire life, with their accompany- 
ing graces of meekness, kindness, and love, by 
which his character was pervaded, were exhibited 
in all his looks, words, and actions as a child, as a 
mechanic, as a man, and as the world's Redeemer. 
His innate holiness, his entire conformity to the 
law and will of God, his undisturbed devotion, and 



The Apple. 



29 



his serene outer life, made him pre-eminently a 
model for all who bear the image of God, and 
wear the habiliments of mortality. For tender- 
ness of heart, and lovingness of life, Jesus is first 
and best of all! "As the apple tree among the 
trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons 
of men." 

2. The Apple Tree is a Shadowy Tree. Its 
spreading boughs are covered with foliage, and the 
wide-arching canop^y of leaves is so low, and the 
shade so broad and cool, that the lightest breeze 
will fan a fragrance from the overhanging verdure 
to the face of the traveler resting beneath. There 
is a substantiality in the leaves, dense, close- 
textured and profuse, and a tenacity in clinging 
to the branches which make the shadows of the 
apple tree peculiarly grateful and refreshing. In 
the heat of the day there is no spot more inviting 
than the dark shade of an apple tree. 

So Christ, in his perfect righteousness, having 
grown up sinless in thought, bountiful in word and 
work, and beautiful in life, through all the ex- 
periences of humanity from infancy to manhood, 
affords the shadow of protection and refreshment 
to his people. He shelters them from the wrath 



30 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



of God which blazes down as scorching sun-fire 
from the firmament of eternal justice, from the 
curse of the broken law, and from the accusations 
of enlightened conscience. This figure of refuge 
for a weary soul is represented by at least three 
other emblems beside the apple tree, as if to intensify 
the thought until it become in every mind a blessed 
fact. In Isaiah, (xviii: 4,) soul recumbence by 
the way is likened to a cloud in harvest, high and 
wide-extending ; but this emblem shows transient- 
ness, and is not complete. Then again it is pre- 
sented as the shadow of a great rock in a weary 
land, dense, certain, and cool ; but this figure 
indicates a one-sided shelter, and is not yet com- 
plete. Again it is typified in such words as these: 
" There shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the 
daytime from the heat." This seems to include 
the close and local shadow-protection of a tree, the 
high and broad shadow-protection of a cloud, the 
intense and invigorating shadow-protection of a 
rock, as well as the complete and constant shadow- 
protection of the tabernacle itself. Thus Christ 
offers the wear} 7 soul ample, complete, and per- 
petual shelter from this sultry world ; and beneath 
the shadow of this Divine Apple Tree, may every 



The Apple. 



31 



perishing sinner come and sit clown with delight ! 
Here are refreshment, protection, and all the 
elements of accelerating strength, free as the air 
for all and forever ! 

There may be some poor weary heart, some- 
where, which these words shall reach, — desolate, 
lonely, and tearfully anxious for some place in 
which to turn aside and rest. Do I address such 
an one ? You are thus far advanced in life's jour- 
ney toward the world unknown, struggling, per- 
haps, with a burden of sins and sorrows under the 
sun-lit sky of God's omniscience. You feel the 
weight, just now, and are sick and almost fainting 
under its pressure. It grows heavier every hour, 
and you have not found relief. You have sinned 
in the light of Heaven; and, unprotected as you are, 
you draw nothing from that light but piercing, 
penetrating beams of displeasure. You will perish 
— surely, speedily perish by the power of the light 
all reaching you as consuming fire, unless you ac- 
knowledge your need of protection, and enter the 
circling shade of the Apple Tree growing in the 
wood. Come, come and sit down beneath His de- 
lightful shadow, heart-famishing stranger, and 



32 



The Gospel av the Trees. 



feel what it is to be cheered and strengthened 
beneath your sheltering Lord ! 

Are you an afflicted father, or a bereaved mother? 
Did God take the little child away from your arms, 
and home, and sight; and does your darling sleep 
under the summer grass, and on, and on, so 
strangely quiet, until the December snows fall over 
its tiny grave ? Two or three days ago, I received 
a most touching letter from a father — a stranger, 
asking sympathy and prayer in his time of trouble. 
These words are in it, and they aid me more than 
the printed opinions of the profoundest commen- 
tary: ''The daughter we have so lately buried 
was indeed the fairest flower — the most cherished 
treasure of our household ; and although to the 
world she was but a child, to her parents she was 
the icorld, and it was hard to part with her. I 
am not yet a Christian ; but I feel well per- 
suaded that my dear daughter is now in heaven, 
and I long to join her there. I know there is 
but one possible way for me to do so — to become 
a Christian, to try to lead a blameless life by faith 
in Jesus Christ who has made full atonement for 
sin.'' 

Let me say to that dear friend and father: You 



The Apple. 



33 



are almost under the shadow of the Apple Tree 
already ! Only step forward a little farther, only 
a little farther, and you will feel the refreshing 
comfort and peace; only one step more, and the 
delicious fragrance will fan your fevered brow and 
revive your sinking heart, and you may sit down 
under the shadow with great delight ; and thence, 
looking up, you shall see your child as a beautiful 
blossom unfolding and exhaling on one of the wav- 
ing branches of the Tree of Life ! 

To all afflicted ones, tired with marching through 
this wilderness of toil and pain, to all bereaved 
ones, sick at heart, and faint with trouble, lonely, 
tearful, fatherless, motherless, mourning and sad : 
Come and rest and refresh your weary souls beneath 
the wide shelter of Jesus's love. The way is open 
and free from eve^ side, and hither you may walk 
from sultry sunshine into perennial shade. Easily 
as you would stoop by a crystal stream to drink 
and quench your raging thirst, — easily as you would 
take the extended hand of a loving brother stand- 
ing by your side; so easily, so delightfully may 
you come this moment, as you are, if you will, and 
sit down under the shadow of Infinite Protection, 
and be happy and satisfied forever. Then shall 



34 The Gospel in the Trees. 

the text be 3^our song, "As the apple tree among 
the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the 
sons. I sat clown under his shadow with great de- 
light, and his fruit was sweet to my taste." 

3. The Apple Tree is a Fruitful Tree. Perhaps 
no other tree, however prolific, yields a greater 
weight and wealth of fruit than the apple tree. 
This is its nature from the germ, the object of its 
planting, the glory of its growth, and the reward 
of the culturer's care at last. This tree will re- 
ceive on its branches by engrafting, all varieties of 
apple scions, and send out its sap to every bough, 
and branch, and bud, to perfect and ripen whatever 
has blossomed on the engrafted stem. Little bud- 
ding twigs from distant lands, completely dissev- 
ered from their native trunk, if only alive, and 
properly attached, may become parts of another 
and longer-living tree, and bear fruit by the vital 
forces of the new body of which they are made an 
identical portion. Upon the same individual tree, 
in spring time, may be seen a variety of blossoms 
differently textured, tinted and scented ; and in 
autumn, a variety of apples, of differing sizes, tastes, 
shapes, and colors each distinct sort being permit- 



The Apple. 



35 



ted to maintain its individuality from budding 
infancy to perfect applehood. 

So is Christ a Fruitful Tree. What philosopher, 
what hero, what religionist of any age or land, has 
accomplished such a work as Jesus, the humble 
Nazarene ? From the Cross has gone forth a re- 
sistless influence conquering and to conquer the 
world. That "beginning" at Jerusalem spread 
throughout Judea, reached the highest seats, the 
proudest hearts, and the farthest bounds of the 
Roman Empire, circled all over the civilized 
nations of the earth, gaining power as it spread, 
and spreading by its accumulating power, until 
heathen lands were gladdened by the gospel sound, 
— until the islands of the sea, and the distant 
regions beyond, were made to echo the song and 
story of the world's Redeemer. 

As a tree rises and strengthens and broadens 
while the summer time grows longer and the 
sultry heats increase, so in the Christian summer 
Bra, advancing toward its autumnal millennium, 
the Tree of Life the more gloriously towers into 
the heavens ; and the branches, with leaves for the 
nations' healing, the more widely expand, waving 
their burdens of ripening fruit, the joy and song of 



36 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



exultant angels. " He must increase," was spoken 
of Jesus and his blessed kingdom, and history 
gives emphasis to the words. For " the kingdoms 
of this world shall become the kingdoms of our 
Lord, and of his Christ." 

The Sacred Apple Tree of Heaven 

In earth strikes deep its massive root, 
And spreads its branching life abroad, 

And bends and glows with luscious fruit. 
Long as the world itself shall last, 

This Tree of Life shall rise and spread, 
From clime to clime, from age to age, 

Its sheltering shadow shall be shed. 
Nations shall seek its fruit and shade, 

Its leaves shall for their healing be, 
The circling power that feeds its life, 

The blood that crimsoned Calvary. * 

Who, in all the universe of God, has brought 
such honor to the Father, called forth such halle- 
lujahs in heaven, excited and answered so much 
heart-love on earth, as Jesus? 0, the innumerable 
multitudes already in Paradise, robed in white and 
crowned with glory, the gathered growths of the 
Redeemer's perfecting power ! And millions more 
are now ripening in the branches of the Apple Tree 
here in the wilderness — the Church on earth — all 



* Changed from Ficus Religioso. 



The Apple. 



37 



developing by the mighty life-power of Jesus 
Christ ! How many alien boughs have been 
grafted into this Apple Tree standing in the 
wood! Christ Jesus is not fenced in by any sect 
or party as an orchard tree, aloof, monopolized and 
guarded. All the approaches are free. He stands 
among the people, outside of walls, and alone, not 
merely as one of a row or group to be admired 
from a distance, and approached only through 
gates that men open and shut, and at times which 
men appoint. "As the apple tree among the trees 
of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons." 
Engrafted in this Hebrew Stock — the Root and 
Offspring of David — are both Jews and Gentiles 
now, barbarian and Scythian, Caucasian and Ethi- 
opian, bond and free, white and black, rich and 
poor, young and old — of every nation, kindred, 
tongue, and people; all living and growing in 
Christ, mingling their thoughts and words and 
works, as mingle the blossoms, the leaves, and the 
fruits of an apple tree, waving and growing in the 
breezes of heaven. 

And as the apple tree recognizes in its nature the 
identity of each engrafted bough, and sends out to 
every blossom the power that shall develop it as 



38 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



an apple of its own distinct character, — so does 
Christ recognize in every human soul united to him 
by faith, its individuality, — its special endowment or 
gift in creation, and gives it the power to richly 
and roundly develop itself according to its ca- 
pacity. Conversion does not produce uniformity 
in thought, or word, or action ; but controls and 
consecrates every human heart in the life-work for 
which it is best adapted. It sets a man to doing 
what God made him for ; and duties are as varied 
as human faces and human wants. When a sinner 
is separated from his sins, and severed from the 
associations that caused him to sin, and is joined by 
living faith to Christ, his talent remains the same, 
his distinct personality is unchanged, even though 
he become a new creature in respect of living for 
new purposes and working from new motives. 
Henceforth Christ becomes the center and source 
of life, and his glory and the good of all men the 
impulse of the believing heart. 

"And his fruit was sweet to my taste." Yes, 
these are blessed words ! All that nature which 
springs from Christ's great, loving heart to the 
hearts of his disciples, produces fruit of most 
delicious sweetness. Humility, charity, meekness, 



The Apple. 



39 



gentleness, brotherly kindness, temperance, forbear- 
ance. These are a few of the fruits. Have you not 
tasted them in hours when the soul was weary, an- 
hungered, and athirst? In times of affliction and 
bereavement, and sorrow,— did not Christian people 
all seem and speak as neighbors, gently and consol- 
ingly to your heart ? Did not some dear friend in 
Jesus pray with you then ? Did not some lover of 
the Saviour and your soul — an affectionate mother, 
or father, or sister, or brother, or child — take you by 
the hand, and utter low and touching words of 
sympathy, and do something, in some way, for you 
in the time of need? That was fruit from this Holy 
Tree. And was it not sweet to your taste ? 

Would to God that our own branch of the Divine 
Apple Tree might cluster full — so full of these rich, 
glowing fruits of the Spirit — that, bending beneath 
its precious burden — bending low, the poorest and 
lowliest might reach, and taste, and be refreshed ! 
May all weary ones passing this way through the 
wilderness, not only come and sit down under the 
shadow with great delight, but be led to exclaim, 
The fruits — the fruits of Christian experience on 
that Methodist branch were offered to me, I re- 
ceived them, and they were sweet to my taste ! 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



"Graft me into Thee forever, 
Tree of Life, that I may grow 
Stronger heavenward, drooping never, 

For the sharpest storms that blow, 
Bearing fruits of faith and truth; 
Then transplant me out of time 
Into that eternal clime, 
Where I shall renew my youth, 
When earth's withered leaves shall bloom 
Fresh in beauty from the tomb 



II. 



THE CEDAR TREE. 



The righteous shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon, 
Psalm xcii. 12. 



HE cedars of Lebanon are renowned in 
sacred and secular annals as the most 
magnificent trees of the East. The Psalm- 
ist calls them "the trees of the Lord." They are 
held in great veneration by the Syrian people to 
this day, a holiday being set apart by them for the 
Feast of the Cedars. 

It is a tree of long life. Observant travelers 
express the opinion that some of the cedars now 
standing on the Taurus Mountains are twenty cent- 
uries old. The wood of this tree is reputed to 
be indestructible ; in some instances portions of 
the timber have been taken from old buildings un- 
injured, firm, and fragrant, after a lapse of two 
thousand years. 

The cedar belongs to the family of pines, the 

resinous, aromatic, needle-leafed group of trees, 

41 



42 The Gospel in the Trees. 

which, as silver fir and larches, crown the moun- 
tains, — and, as spruce and hemlock, fringe the de- 
ciduous forests and winding water-courses at their 
base. 

Did you ever wander alone into the heart of a 
dense pine forest in a summer day ? It is one of 
the quietest, grandest scenes in Nature. The busy 
noises of the human world, and even the dreamy 
murmur of the woods and waters, are unheard there. 
No song of bird, or hum of insect, intrudes upon 
the solemn stillness of the place. The only sound 
is the plaintive whisper of the low wind sighing 
through the harp-like branches overhead, or the 
mournful coo of the dove in some distant solitude, 
making the aisles of the wood sacred as a sanctuary. 
There your soul communed with God in the sweet 
serenity of silence ; there you breathed your inmost 
wants as a prayer into the ear of your listening 
Father ; there, in the hush and calm of the ancient 
forest temple, you worshiped and were blest. There 
was a hallowed influence in the air, the scene, the 
hour, which put you in communication with heaven ; 
and precious truths were told you there in psalms 
of tenderness, sweeter than the melody of flute or 
organ to the pensive spirit. The cathedral-like 



The Cedar. 



43 



quiet was balmed and holy with fragrance, as if 
pervaded with the incense of sacrifice; the high 
dome of the sky seemed to arch more closely over 
you with its celestial blue ; and the dark green 
foliage about you was trembling with the harmony 
of vespers chanted only for your soul. Then your 
thoughts were called away from the fading vanities 
and turbulent excitements of the world, and directed 
to the serene and imperishable glories of the heav- 
enly Paradise. Then you comprehended the mean- 
ing of the prophet's words, as never before, "I will 
plant in the wilderness the cedar, the fir tree, and 
the pine, and the box tree together : that they may 
see, and know, and consider, and understand to- 
gether that the hand of the Lord hath clone this, 
and the Holy One of Israel hath created it." 

The cedar, using the term in its generic sense, is 
the most widely diffused of all the trees of the for- 
est. Some species of it may be found from the 
snowy ridges of Lapland in the North to tiie torrid 
plains and low sea-islands of the middle zone, and 
beyond to the regions of the antarctic circle. And 
in some form, from the level of the ocean to the 
elevated mountain ranges — to the highest line of 
vegetation, — the cedar flourishes round and round 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



the world. It has been said of the cedar, " that 
its branches shall cover the earth." The acknow- 
ledged fact of its distribution is co-extensive with 
the soil of the globe's broad surface ; for the cones 
and spines of this tree point toward the sun in his 
eternal noon ; and if his shining is perpetual on 
any one green thing growing, it is upon the cedar. 

But there are special regions where the cedar at- 
tains its greatest perfection and glory. " The palm 
tree is perfect in the tropics, and symbolizes the 
summer of the world. The cedar is tallest and 
strongest and most fragrant in the north temperate 
zone, and might be called the symbol of the winter 
of the world." The one represents luxuriant foliage 
and abundant fruitfulness ; the other represents 
wealths equally great and important as they, — pa- 
tience, endurance, unchangingness, and strength. 
The cedar flourishes best under bleak winds, gray 
clouds, and piling snows. It is the most beautiful 
when skirting the rugged mountain sides ; or, stand- 
ing on the heights where palmate leaves and delicate 
fruits are never known, a graceful inhabitant of the 
barren peaks, and a sentinel on the outposts of 
vegetation, to meet, to challenge, to grapple with 
the storms which sweep, wild and mighty, from 



The Cedar. 



45 



the wintry skies. And there, in the very struggle 
which it accepts alone, the cedar imparts an odor- 
ous balm to the breath of the blast, tempering its 
pitiless power that it may pass down to the ten- 
derer trees and plants of the valle} 7 with benedic- 
tion instead of destruction beneath its wings. 

In Switzerland, avalanches are stayed along the 
slopes and summits of the mountains by the faith- 
fulness of the cedar and its kindred evergreens, 
while the herdsmen and the flocks repose in safety 
below. Upon the desolate Norwegian hills, the 
cedar forests keep incessant conflict with the polar 
winds, holding them in check, and toning down 
their fierceness, and thus protecting the southward 
valleys while that humble people cultivate the soil 
and lead a contented life. The land of Palestine is 
sterile, tempest-driven, and almost uninhabitable 
to-day, because its cedared groves have been laid 
waste. Every group of these honored trees has 
been planted by a Beneficent Hand, and every in- 
dividual of the evergreen brotherhood is appointed 
to answer a specific purpose in the economy of 
Nature. The country that loses its pine forests 
shall never be able to recover the loss in wells of 
running oil ! 



4G 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



Not in rich soil; not under gentle showers and 
warm sunbeams ; not with the open smile of an un- 
changing sky playing upon it day by day and all 
the year; — not thus does the cedar grow; but in 
the scant and sandy ground of rocky mountain 
sides, beneath the fierce training of tempest, in the 
thin atmosphere where clouds dissolve, where frosts 
are shaped and sharpened, where hardiest birds will 
scarcety venture, — up in the region of that rough 
and rugged discipline where storms and avalanches 
are fashioned— there the cedar is developed in all 
its fibers to glorious strength, and clothed upon in 
all its branches with fadeless verdure. 

The cedar lives where no other tree could live. 
And it grows at the expense of no other vegetation. 
Its shadows blight no other living thing ; its roots 
crowd the roots of no other tree ; its sap is drawn 
from a soil that promises nothing to any other 
growth. It lives in its own clear right, owing no- 
thing to the courtesy of neighbor plants for making 
room ; but it rises independent of all growing things 
beneath and around, and climbs into the atmosphere 
nearest to heaven, and shoves its most vigorous 
branches and tenderest buds the farthest through 
the high skies toward God, as if to lodge its bright- 



The Cedar. 



47 



est leaf and most beautiful cone against the win- 
dows of that eternal house not made with hands ! 

The leaves of the cedar tree are aciculate, or 
needle-shaped, and tough in fiber, and clustered in 
the strictest economy of strength, so that the winds 
may pass through the tree without dislodging them, 
and that the snow may rest upon the branches to 
beautify them by its white, rather than break them 
by its weight. The cedar tree is like an organ, 
gothic in architecture, through which the winds of 
the mountain blow, making delightful music, and 
bearing its sweetness to heaven, murmuring melody 
forever, and yielding with every gentle note the 
undying fragrance of its own heart, and blending 
all as an offering of praise to Him before whom 
"the mountains and hills break forth into singing, 
and all the trees of the field clap their hands." 

The cedar wood, on account of its beauty and 
durability, was used by the ancient church for sacred 
purposes. The ark of the covenant, that most holy 
structure, and much of the elaborate work of Sol- 
omon's Temple, as well as that of Diana at Ephesus, 
were made of cedar. The Bible often refers to 
it as applied to most honorable purposes, as if, 
though dead as a tree, its foliage all faded and gone, 



48 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



and the place of its birth and life knowing it no 
more, it should still speak by its perpetual fragrance 
from the dwellings of men, and continue to breathe 
as an immortal presence upon the passing genera- 
tions. 

Now let us, from this outline, consider a few spe- 
cial points of Christian character, as illustrated by 
the cedar tree. 

1. The Cedar is a Strong-rooted and, Perennially- 
growing Tree. Its roots spread broadly, and pene- 
trate in every direction through the shallow soil, 
and fasten themselves firmly by infinitely branching 
fibers to the unevenness of the rock beneath. What 
is wanting in depth of root foundation is more than 
compensated by the extent of soil, and the twin- 
ing rock-holds secured as the broad base of the tree. 
By this natural adaptation of the living roots to 
the condition of the soil, the cedar is most effectually 
planted, and is, in every increasing branch above, 
and in every insinuating fiber below, strengthening 
itself to the location and condition of its existence. 

And the cedar grows all the year round. In win- 
ter storm as well as summer sun, its boughs en- 
large, its roots extend, and its trunk toughens, 
hardens and enlarges, in uninterrupted increase, 



The Cedar. 



49 



It may not grow so rapidly as other trees in au- 
spicious weather; but it grows all the time. And 
thus the cedar flourishes, and is the most vigorous 
and beautiful of trees. 

(i The righteous shall grow like a cedar in Leb- 
anon.'' The Christian is rooted and grounded in 
faith and love, the broad soil of God's eternal truth 
resting on the Hock, Christ Jesus ; and the fibers of 
his rising life ma}' strike wide and reach far into 
all science, into all art, into all literature, draw- 
ing power to grow from all that the Infinite Father 
intends shall nurture and develop the human char- 
acter. The Christian, while in his body of mortal 
flesh, can not live independent of the world, any 
more than the cedar can live independent of the 
soil. As long; as men walk the earth, believino; in 
Christ, and eating their daily bread, they may grow 
as the cedar of Lebanon, deriving strength and beau- 
ty through agencies which reach the heart by local 
appointments and associations, — growing alone or 
in social and family groups, as grows the cedar; and 
taking into life from Nature all that can be worked 
into religion, as the tree takes in from ground and 
air the elements which make its buds and leaves 

and very wood. The Christian is not required in 

4 



50 The Gospel in the Trees. 



the gospel to ignore the world, and boast of free- 
dom from all its social and secular pursuits ; but 
rather to make the most out of it, using all the 
good in that part of it with which he comes in im- 
mediate contact, as a means of enlarging his human- 
ity, and by God's grace discerning and overcoming 
the evil : and thus, in proportion to his broad-rooted 
foundation on all that is nurturing and ennobling 
here where the Lord planted men to grow and not 
wilt, — to rise here with a show of life, wide, high and 
evergreen toward the fadeless perfections above. 

For the idea of Christian growth is one of the 
most emphatic in the Bible. The believer grows in 
grace, and in knowledge, and in experience ; and 
he can never attain a point where growing is not 
an essential condition to his spiritual life and health. 
The notion of Christian perfection, as expressed by 
some religionists, that a human heart may be so 
completely Christianized or " sanctified " as to cease 
growing, as to be freed from the possibility or tend- 
ency to sin, as to be quite out of the range of tempta- 
tion, is a teaching of more modern than apostolical 
authority. And yet we often hear this lifeless doc- 
trine pressed by its advocates in uncharitable, and, 
sometimes, in pharisaical persistence into the ears 



The Cedar. 



61 



of the people as an attainment possible to all, even 
in this life ! If so, then what shall we sa} r of ex- 
panding mind and soul, the result only of the drill 
and discipline to which all Christians are appointed 
here below? What shall be done with the phrase 
in the Lord's Prayer, pronounced for all believers, 
"Lead us not into temptation ?" — What concern- 
ing our hope for the opening glories and eternal 
developments of heaven? Jesus was tempted in 
every point as we are. Shall the disciple be greater 
than his Lord, and boast deliverance from the temp- 
tation to sin ? Shall the Christian attain an eleva- 
tion of purity, experience, and usefulness, in this 
probationary w r orld, beyond which there shall be 
no more growth ? while at the same time we read 
of the immaculate Jesus himself, that he increased 
in wisdom and stature as a man ! How far behind 
some of these latter-day perfectionists is the great 
apostle Paul, who, sainted and crowned in glory, 
forgetting his eminent attainments already accu- 
mulated, is still pressing "toward the mark for the 
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus !" 

No, no : Christian perfection is the perfection of 
love, of desire, of effort, — not the climax of attain- 
ment. A man can never be too righteous to grow, 



52 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



— not until a cedar can be too healthy and strong 
to grow, — too full of sap to put forth a new bud, 
expand a new leaf, start out a new bough, fashion 
a new cone, and enlarge its own trunk. " The right- 
eous shall grow as a cedar of Lebanon," and Leba- 
non's cedars grow till they die. 

2. The Cedar is an Honored and Stately Tree. 
The cedar of Lebanon is associated, in Bible re- 
ference, with the honor of temples and altars. Its 
dignity attracted the eye of prophets and sages of 
old. Ezekiel speaks in a figure: "The Assyrian 
was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with 
a shadowing shroud of an high stature." "I have 
made him fair by the multitude of his branches : so 
that all the trees in Eden that were in the garden of 
God envied him." 

Travelers to this day visit the groves of Lebanon 
with an interest equaled only hy that which is ex- 
cited by a view of the City of David. Some of the 
old forest patriarchs which flourished in the time 
of David's Greater King still stand and grow on the 
Syrian mountains as unburied witnesses of Bible 
records and Bible revelations. 

The cedar has a world-wide reputation for du- 
rability, gracefulness, fragrance, and the thousand 




CEDAR OF LEBANON. 



The Cedar. 



55 



associations that cluster around it as a tree of the 
Lord. It occupies a place of honor not only in the 
Scriptures, and in the history of the church ; but 
naturalists classify it as one of the most useful and 
eminent of trees. The majesty of its appearance, 
its continuous verdure and fragrance, make it a 
crowning glory in forest vegetation. The Arabs 
attribute to this tree a power to live eternally, and 
a wise instinct by which it anticipates the changes 
of the w r eather, folding nearer its heart its spread- 
ing branches before a storm. Standing at its eleva- 
tion of six thousand feet above the sea, with roots 
firmly set in the everlasting mountains, and with 
many a lightning scar, and mossy bough, sometimes 
bending under the burden of Lebanon's gleaming 
snow, and with the dust of Israel's kings and mighty 
multitudes sleeping far down beneath its shade, the 
tall cedar is an inspiring theme for the poet and 
artist of every age. 

So is the Christian honorable and comely in his 
life, his growth, and in all his associations. The 
annals of his faith through all past ages are a record 
of dignity, devotion, and self-denial. The eye of the 
world's artists and historians has been fixed with 
wonder and admiration on the consecrated disciple 



56 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



of Jesus, as he towered high in grace and good 
works ever his un regenerate fellow men. The Chris- 
tian has been first in benevolence, first in reform, 
first in science, first in art, first in literature, first 
in freedom ; and infidelity itself can not but acknow- 
ledge the growth and grandeur of the man who lives 
in the faith of the gospel. As the trees of Eden 
which envied the cedar for its fair form and spread- 
ing branches, — so the leafy, summer skepticism of 
this age envies the rich, round character of the 
righteous man who grows like a cedar of Lebanon. 

We have seen how the cedar grows in all latitudes 
and in all levels ; how it battles with storms, and 
flourishes best in dreary places ; how it disarms the 
tempest of its fury, and sends it, conquered and 
calm, a balm-bearer to lowlier vegetation ; how it 
holds the awful avalanche in check ; how all the 
year it glories in the severe tuition of blast and 
thunder along the heights ; how it lives where other 
trees would die ; how it grows supremely original 
in its inherent right and room ; how it sends its 
proudest branches nearest to heaven ; how its leaves 
are formed to receive the storm, and yet to hold their 
place ; how its branches are ornamented and glori- 
fied by what would crush other trees to the earth ; 



The Cedar. 



57 



how through all these rigid tests it sends music 
and incense to the skies : how, even after death, its 
wood is applied to most sacred uses, holding its 
perfume forever. In all these particulars the cedar 
aptly illustrates the conflict, the patience, the 
grandeur, and the glory of the Christian's life, and 
the precious memory of the Christian's death. 

So, if you are a true disciple of the Lord, you 
will be fitted to useful living here, and eternal living 
in heaven— not in ease, not in quiet, not in sunshine, 
not in idleness, not in luxury ; but, rather, you will 
be sanctified by work, by care, by antagonism, by 
affliction ; you will be the Christian anywhere and 
everywhere ; you will cheerfully breast the wild 
drift of persecution for the sake of the discipline 
it brings ; you will realize the dignity of personal 
accountability to Christ, independent of family or 
sectarian prestige, as the cedar which draws and uses 
power in its appointed place, uncompromised w r ith 
any other vegetation under the sun ; you w T ill send 
your highest, brightest thoughts in praise to God, 
and diffuse the incense of your love to heaven and 
earth the same; you w T ill so grow in Christ Jesus 
that the winds of false doctrine will howl harmlessly 
by, wittiout dislodging a thought or an affection of the 



58 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



soul, as the wild mountain winds pass by the cedar 
without detaching a leaf; you will even he stirred 
to sing psalms of thanksgiving by the very influ- 
ences which shall blast the hopes of the ungodly 
forever. Yes, if converted and Christ-imaged, you 
will grow stronger with every added day, and be 
developed the more by every adversity, bereave- 
ment, loss, and sorrow, enlarging in heart and mind 
and soul as you live and are tempted, standing firm 
on the Rock till you die. And then, being dead, 
your memory shall speak to succeeding generations, 
as the fragrance of the cedar breathes evermore 
when its foliage has departed, and its branches have 
been laid low in the dust. 

Is not such a life honorable, and such a life come- 
ly ? My Christian brother, are you growing as the 
cedar, all the more strong and stately because of 
trouble and toil ? This is the way to be developed 
for heaven. " The righteous shall grow like the 
cedar of Lebanon ; and Lebanon's cedars have be- 
come honorable and stately in a region of barren- 
ness, tempest, and cold. 

"Here let us stand with planted feet 

Steadfast, where Paul and Silas stood; 
Upon us let the tempest beat, 

Around us swell and surge the flood: 



The Cedar. 



59 



We fail or triumph on this spot ; 
God helping us, we falter not." 

"0 how sublime a thing it is 
To suffer and be strong V 

3. The Cedar is an Evergreen Tree, Through 
sun and shadow, calm and storm, the whole year 
round, although other trees, in milder atmosphere, 
lose their foliage, and in autumn stand naked and 
desolate, with arms stretched pleadingly toward 
the pitiless skies, — the cedar remains fresh and ever- 
green. When snows lodge on its branches, its dark 
emerald glows all the more beautifully by contrast ; 
and although chill winds blow loud and long, its 
leaves murmur the more melodiously, and its 
perpetual fragrance is the more richly diffused. 
Though individual leaves fade and fall from the 
cedar, one by one, the tree never loses its verdure ; 
for its foliage is continually renewed, and it is even 
green the summer and winter through. 

A few days ago, in the country, I stood beneath 
a tall cedar, a student of its nature, and an admirer 
of its glory. I observed that the lower branches 
showed the only signs of decay; and that they 
seemed to be appointed to removal, in order that 
the sap of the tree might pass uninterruptedly up- 



GO 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



ward to develop the higher boughs and to hold the 
top in full evergreen. The trunk of the cedar is 
made the more grand and substantial by the dis- 
appearance of the lower branches, year by year, 
and the avenues to communicate life and beauty 
upward are thus the more direct and effectual. And 
so does the Christan grow. The habits of his child- 
hood, his embiyo notions and opinions, as he rises 
into manhood, are lost; and like the cedar, as he 
grows, his lower affections and attachments, love of 
the world, of fame, of position, one by one, die and 
disappear, and his higher nature is all the more 
comely and complete. An} 7 man may thus die unto 
an, and live unto God, — loose his attachments 
from the things of time and sense, and fix them 
upon those things which are eternal and divine. 

Beautiful emblem of immortality ! The Christian 
shall hold the life eternally which comes to his soul 
by faith in Jesus Christ, for his manhood is en- 
larged and educated for heaven by the discipline of 
toil and tears. Like a cedar sparkling beneath its 
burden of snow, a true and faithful disciple exhibits 
all the more beautifully his unchanging confidence 
and hope, when the world piles its drifting cold- 



The Cedar. 



61 



nesses upon him. The Christian is never so beauti- 
ful, never so strong, as when bearing his cross ! 

Though other religionists lose their brilliant leaf- 
age of word and form when adversity blows upon 
them, and stand in trouble's hour like trees strip- 
ped and exposed to the deathful blast, the righteous 
man welcomes the storm, and though, at last, bend- 
ing to the grave before its mightj' power, yet he shall 
spring forth again, in the strength of Him who con- 
quered death, and rise triumphant in the Paradise 
of God, to grow and wave and breathe music for- 
ever as a tree planted by the Elver of Life. " The 
righteous shall grow like a cedar of Lebanon and 
Lebanon's cedars teach immortality in their every 
leaf, and through their life-time of centuries cease 
not to whisper of peace forever and ever. Then 
when this flesh shall fail, these eyes be sealed, and 
this trembling tongue be still, 

" let the rootlets of that tree, 
While creeping downward, twine round me ; 
And from the dust that crumbles there, 
Drink in the food they need, and bear 
It upward to the topmost boughs, 
To give them life through winter snows, 
And keep them green long as they wave — 
A type of life beyond the grave. 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



" While cedar grows, and upward shoots, 
And downward sends its tender roots — 
Defiance giving to the blast, 
As through its leaves it rushes past — 
Remember, friends, the soul shall live 
In worlds on high. Then who would grieve, 
Since death is only a remove 
From storm below to calm above?" 



III. 

THE OLIVE TR EE. 




His branches shall spread, and Jiia beauty shall be as 
the olive tree. Hosea xiv. 6. 

jHESE words were spoken of the Church of 
God by the sententious prophet, Hosea, at 
a period about eight hundred 3 r ears before 
the advent of Jesus Christ. The figures employed 
by this, the first of the minor prophets, are force- 
ful and distinct, and refer, mainly, to the captivity 
and dispersion of Israel, the deliverance of Judah 
from Sennacherib, the then present state of the 
Jews, their future restoration and union with the 
Gentile world under the Headship of Messiah, 
the Saviour's return from Egypt, and his resurrec- 
tion on the third day. 

The language of the text is applicable to the 
church in all ages and lands, and indicates that 
prosperity which always attends the truth of God 
when once planted in the hearts of men. 

The increase and comeliness of Christ's king- 
dom on the earth are compared to the intertwining 

63 



64 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



branches and beautiful symmetry of the olive 
tree. 

The word olive signifies fairness or brightness. 
A grove of these trees, with their grotesquely 
arching and interlocking boughs, and dense foliage 
of pale, silvery green leaves, is one of the most 
charming sights in the oriental land. The vast 
leafage of an olive forest spreading along the 
base of the hills, and rising in billowy rounds 
along their slopes in the distance, resembles the 
sea in color and grandeur; and the profusion of 
the scene speaks of plenty, beauty and peace. For 
the olive tree furnishes food to the hungry, shade 
to the weary, medicine to the diseased ; and whis- 
pers in its leafy branches of quiet and gladness to 
every traveler on the plain. 

The olive tree flourishes best when its roots 
penetrate through the drifted sands, down to the 
chalky marl and flinty pebbles of the more solid 
substratum which holds the secret treasures of 
oil. If the tree can not reach the rock beneath, its 
blossoms will be few, its leaves thin and frail, and 
its berries small, bitter, and immature. 

The olive is a tree of slow growth ; but if suffi- 
ciently rooted below the surface sands of the 



THE OLIVE-TREE. 

(Branch and fruit, 



The Olive, 



67 



plain or mountain side, it becomes hardy and 
tough to its topmost bough. It bears no fruit 
till its seventh year, nor much for fifteen years ; 
but then it continues to yield berries in abund- 
ance through centuries of age. It is prodigal of 
blossoms, bending under the density of their 
weight ; but casts off showers of them to the wind 
as snow-flakes are cast from a cloud. If one 
blossom in every hundred produced a berry, the 
tree would break in autumn beneath its excessive 
fruitfulness. Job speaks of the wicked man as 
one who casts off his flower as the olive, referring 
to this accident of the tree, and aptly illustrating 
the thoughts and words of him, who, trusting in 
vanity, never bears his promises out to perform- 
ances. There are man}' professors of religion all 
in bloom with smiles and good resolutions; but 
they have not the root-plantedness on the Rock 
which insures the development of a single such 
fair blossom to the maturity of a duty done. But 
the olive tree, well rooted and grounded in its 
native place, although millions of blossoms fall 
away, and although the branches may appear dry 
and warped and knotted, will continue to produce 
its harvest of rich, oily berries for a thousand 



68 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



years. And it is fruitful, even if neglected. It 
grows and yields independently of the culture of 
men's hands, unlike the vineyard, that, without 
dressing would crisp and perish ; or the mulberry, 
that, uncared for, would die. A traveler speaks 
of an olive grove on the desolate hills above An- 
tioch, although no one had given attention to it for 
half a century, still flourishing and fruitful as ever. 

This tree may well be estimated as one of the 
most valuable gifts which the beneficent Creator 
has bestowed on man. Its oil is a certain and 
indispensable article of food whose nourishing 
properties are equal to those of the manna in the 
wilderness ; it has a sanitive property which heals 
wounds like a balm from Gilead ; it has a magic 
power which expels the poison of insect's or serpent's 
sting from the human system ; it burns to illumi- 
nate the cottage of the poor and the palace of the 
rich with equal radiance ; it was used in the Old 
Testament church to consecrate offerings to the 
Most High, and to feed the lamps which burned 
before the Testimony in the Tabernacle of the 
great congregation. Its wood has been appropri- 
ated to most sacred purposes. In Solomon's 
temple it was used for the posts of the entrance 



The Olive. 



69 



doors, and for the cherubim within the gold-laid 
oracle, and for the doors of the mercy-seat. 

The olive tree strikingly represents, by its oily 
fatness drawn from the rock, the mercy and sus- 
taining power of God toward the human race since 
Adam's fall ; and since that day it has typified 
divine and abounding grace in healing all the 
spiritual diseases and infirmities of degenerate 
man, and the influence of the Holy Spirit in driv- 
ing out the poison of moral corruption from the 
heart, and enlighting the souls of rich and poor 
in heavenly truth. 

From the nature of the olive tree, and its 
honored associations in the Bible, we learn that 
when any thing is compared to it by historian, 
prophet, poet, or apostle, in the Sacred Word, it is 
to indicate prosperity, utility, and excellence. 

Let us notice two or three prominent character- 
istics of the olive tree. 

1. The Olive Tree is a Tree of Resolute Growth . 

It was the living green branch of an olive tree 
which Noah's dove brought in to the ark after its 
weary flight in search of land and resting place. 
All other growths were still overwhelmed and 
prostrate beneath the surging waves, unable to lift 



70 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



their trailing branches from the current ; but from 
some eminence, with roots firmly fastened to the 
everlasting rock, and with sturdy trunk and elastic 
limb, the lanceolate leaves of the olive sprang first 
to sunlight, and beckoned to the longing dove, the 
earliest green of the renovated world ! 

This tree is firm-textured in its wood, fine and 
hard in fiber, and although growing slowly, grows 
strong and secure in its appointed place, a match 
for storm and time, to stand through centuries of 
change, the same evergreen and unweary burden- 
bearer of good to men. Its sap circulates to every 
twig and bud, unchilled by frost and unfevered by 
heat, producing a full, round strength of trunk 
and branch and leaf, spreading and strengthening 
from heart to utmost bough and topmost bloom, as 
a tree of life and health and power. The root of 
the olive is almost indestructible, preserving its 
vitality for ages, and sending up new shoots every 
summer, and ample supplies of nourishment to its 
constantly enlarging life. The trees now standing 
on the Mount of Olives are supposed to be the 
same under which our Saviour often walked, and 
beneath whose shadowy branches he wept and 
prayed alone in the dark hour of his Passion. 



The Olive. 71 

Sometimes three or four trees have been known to 
rise and mature from the same vigorous root ; and 
although the trunk of an olive tree may be hol- 
lowed out by age, by insect boring, or as the result 
of injudicious pruning, so that but a thin piece of 
wood remains next to the bark ; still, the tenacity 
of life is so great that the vital sap will be trans- 
mitted to the boughs to hold their leaves in ever- 
green, and to perfect their forming fruit as richly 
as though the trunk were solid from core to bark. 

The combined branches of the olive tree, circling 
out in every possible form of curve, twist, cluster, 
and intertwining, although each separate branch, 
viewed alone, might be considered distorted and 
intrusive, make a symmetrical completeness, each 
part of which tills its appointed place to add dig- 
nity and majesty to the whole tree. The develop- 
ment of the tree is not one-sided ; the sap rises in 
equal distribution, and runs out through every 
bough, however crooked, and flushes every vein of 
the farthest leaf, however delicate, making the tree, 
as a whole, green and strong in the unity of its 
life. By this unifold and unfailing power which 
Nature supplies, the olive tree spreads, enlarges, 
covers itself out of very gratitude with blossoms, 



72 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



and matures to the perfectness of fruit all that its 
branches will bear for centuries. 

So is the church of Christ resolute in its growth. 
When all the world was submerged as with a flood 
by idolatry and formalism, an angel came flying 
across the midnight gloom with the song of good 
will to men. An olive branch of peace was 
brought from the heavenly shore. The Messiah 
appeared. His early life was obscure ; his minis- 
try was local and misinterpreted ; his professed 
friends forgot their promises in the trial hour, and 
fled ; his body was nailed to the cross, and bled, 
and agonized, and died. A small upper room held 
all the disciples, at first, and the narrow grave 
their Master and Lord. But not long, not long ! 
The third day Jesus rose ; and when he joined his 
bewildered followers again, their hearts burned 
within them as never before. The clove that once 
descended on him with a benediction of peace and 
a recognition of Sonship, now descends on all the 
believing disciples ! Still, like their Master, they 
are poor, still friendless ; and nobody seems to 
know or care for them. Their purposes are not 
yet settled, their influence not yet concentrated or 
felt. What are so few among so many? 



The Olive. 



73 



Never mind. Only wait. The olive tree grows 
without men's oversight. This tree of eternal 
growth and immortal bloom and celestial fruit, the 
church of Jesus Christ, is already planted on the 
earth, and its roots are twining securely about 
the unfailing Rock. This sacred Tree may not 
rise to broad foliage and abundant fruitfulness in a 
season, or in a century ; but it is planted — it is 
planted ! The spade that parted the sod on Cal- 
vary for the upright beam of the cross, planted a 
Tree which rises still, expanding, and blooming, 
and bearing fruit, not only for a summer, or a 
thousand years, but forever and ever ! 

The principles of the church of Jesus Christ 
are enduring and ever-expansive. It holds in its 
life the power to withstand the changes of empire, 
and all the mutations of the secular world ; and it 
grows strong and grand in its place against the 
storms of persecution, the same through all the 
changeful years. To use another figure, the blood 
of Christ circulates from his own heart out to all 
the members of his mystical body — the church. 
The Saviour's own illustration still more nearly 
parallels the figure of the text : "I am the Vine ; 
ye are the branches." The eternal life-power of 



74 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



Jesus is sent into every true disciple's heart, as the 
sap of the vine into every branch. So every believer 
is made partaker of the life of Christ, and derives 
from Him alone the ability to enlarge in thought, 
in affection, in work, and in all that rounds up a 
full life, and clusters it with blossoms of good will, 
and matures it to the fruitage of noble deeds, to 
the honor and glory of God. 

And thus the church as a whole, in its heart 
vitalized by the life of Christ, grows and gains 
power with the passing years. It spread from its 
center at Jerusalem out to adjacent neighbor- 
hoods ; out to surrounding lands ; out to distant 
nations. It sent its blooming branches to over- 
shadow the weary poor on every side. It forced 
its wide-extending boughs of evergreen over the 
Roman Empire, beyond the cities of Asia, across 
the household of Caesar, against the walls of every 
school of philosophy, — bearing its fragrance into 
literature, into learning, into art, into science, into 
the laws and languages of the world. The more it 
was obstructed the more it spread. It was, and is, 
and shall be forever more, to all the nations, the 
Tree of Life, made fruitful in ever3 T branch by the 
conversion of individual men, and bountiful all over 



The Olive. 



75 



and ever more by the civilization of empires and 
republics. And its fruits are the fruits of the 
Spirit, in all and to all the same, "love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- 
ness, temperance: against such there is no law." 

And the church, as an olive tree, grows sym- 
metrically. It is not a one-sided growth — not a 
disproportionate expansion. No one olive-berry 
ripens because of prominent position on some front- 
side bough, at the expense of the clustering fruits 
below or behind. Each leaf and shaping olive 
derives its life only through the trunk of the tree, 
sustains equal relationship to every other leaf 
and fruit, is loyally attached to the tree as a 
whole, and bows in obligation to no presumptive, 
oily-faced berry above ! 

And in the church of Christ there is no one 
branch appointed to bear royal sap for the de- 
velopment of ecclesiastics only, — no peculiar 
virtue running into the religion of preachers by 
which they receive authority to rule the consciences 
of the people. 

The symmetry of an olive tree permits an infinite 
variety of curve and turn and cross-linking of 
branches, but never an abrupt, morbid superfluity ; 



76 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



and hides even the symptom of such a thing by an 
extra covering of leaves. 

Neither does the church of Christ, if healthful 
in growth, permit such an excrescence as clerical 
lordship over the laity. That is an ecclesiastical 
deformity, unsightly and injurious, and destroys 
the healthful proportions of the Divine Olive Tree, 
where every immortal bud and blossom and fruit 
is fashioned as a distinct original, to develop in 
the free air and sunlight of heaven as the Almighty 
wills, and not a man ! 

The evangelical denominations are but the 
branches of the Tree, all growing out of Christ, all 
sharing the same nature, opening the same kind of 
blossom, and maturing the same kind of fruit. A 
tree with but one bough would indicate a diseased 
root, and be a monstrosity in nature. But Christ, 
in the perfection of his chaiacter, adapts his grace 
to the identity of every man, whatever his talent, 
his location, or his opportunity, and thus enlarges 
his universal church by strengthening individual 
men to do what they were born to do, in their 
appointed spheres, related to one another and com- 
posing a symmetrical whole, as the branches and 
leaves of an olive tree. As every distinct twig of 



The Olive. 



77 



the tree fills its place, and grows where God started 
it and helps it, so every truly Christian sect, and 
every individual member, is appointed to a life and 
grow T th peculiar to itself as a unit, and yet sympa- 
thetic and symmetrical with all others as a whole. 
And as no two branches of an olive tree, however 
crooked and gnarled by nature, ever embarrass one 
another by elbowing for the same place in the air, 
the same number of leaves, and the same rough 
coating of outer bark, nor for the same identical 
holding-on point to the trunk of the tree, — but 
grow and wave from the attachment which nature 
fixed ; so, it would seem, should Christians realize 
that their spiritual health and power are in the 
sphere where grace has grafted them to Christ, 
whether that be in pulpit or in pew, in business or in 
art, in literature or in science, in the city or in the 
country, — whether on the Methodist side, or the 
Presb3'terian side, or the Baptist side, or the 
Lutheran side, or any other side of the trunk. 

Perhaps all these differences of opinion on non- 
essentials are permitted to men, just as the round- 
and-round growing room is permitted to the 
branches of the olive tree. And as the blossoms 
of the tree are so intermingled in the spreading 



78 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



branches in spring time ; and as the fruits hang 
in equal distribution over the whole tree in autumn; 
and as the leaves, the whole year round, are inter- 
woven in the tree's seamless garment of protection 
and grace, — thus hiding the distinct limbs by 
verdure and blossom and beriy, — so should Chris- 
tian people's thoughts and words and works so 
enrobe and adorn the universal church as to 
conceal the sectarian branch-forms forever! For 
C bristly recognition among the saints is not in the 
hard wood of theology and doctrine, however im- 
portant as agents of good ; bub in the fruits of the 
Spirit, ripe and delicious. As an olive tree instinc- 
tively hides its dry-barked branches, and hangs out 
foliage and fruit to the eye, so should Christians 
rather screen their clenominationalism by healthful 
profusion of loving words and charitable actions ! 
The question is not, in autumn time, On w r hich 
branch did this berry grow ? but, Is it an olive, 
ripe and mature? And at the judgment, in the 
world's autumnal gleaning da}', the question will 
not be, In which sect did this soul grow ? but, Is 
it developed in Jesus Christ ? 



" 'Tis the sublime of man, 
Our noontide majesty, to know ourselves 



The Olive. 



79 



Parts and proportions of one wondrous whole! 
This fraternizes man, this constitutes 
Our charities and bearings." 

2. The Olive Tree is a Perennially Beautiful 
Tree, It holds its greenness the round year 
through, and is, in this particular, an exception to 
almost every fruit-bearing tree. Its foliage is not 
for a season merely, but is renewed as it fades, and 
kept perfect in verdure, summer and winter, on 
through the long ages of its fruitful life. 

Most trees are very beautiful in the pleasant 
summer days, when showers fall to refresh and 
sunbeams to cheer the branches, and when all the 
air is balmy with the breath of growing vegetation. 
But the frost touches the fairest leaves, and quickly 
tinges the whole forest and orchard with the scarlet 
fevers of the fall. The broad luxuriance which 
waved under the sunlight and glittered beneath 
the summer rain, crisps in autumn, detaches itself 
from the trees, and scatters as dust along the 
ground. 

Xot so with the olive tree. It forms its leaves 
to endure the cold and storm, and gives them the 
grace out of its own oi\y roots to shine the more 
because of the tossing wind and the chilling snow. 



80 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



There is no time in the year when this tree is not 
beautiful, in leaf, in bloom, in fruitage growing or 
mellowing on the branches. 

Another beauty of the olive tree is in the intri- 
cately entertwining boughs, — the irregularities of 
the curve and branching of each distinct part being 
made graceful by harmonious association with other 
originals all through the tree. The apparent defect 
of a branch, when viewed alone, becomes a peculiar 
beauty when viewed as a part of the whole. "I do 
not want painters to tell me any scientific facts 
about olive trees. But it had been well for them to 
have felt and seen the olive tree ; to have loved it 
for Christ's sake, partly also for the helmed Wis- 
dom's sake which was to the heathen in some sort 
as that nobler Wisdom which stood at God's right 
hand, when he founded the earth and established 
the heavens. To have loved it even to the hoary 
dimnessof its delicate foliage, subdued and faint of 
hue, as if the ashes of the Gethsemane agony had 
been cast upon it forever ; and to have traced, line 
for line, the gnarled writhings of its intricate 
branches, and the pointed fretwork of its light and 
narrow leaves, inlaid on the blue field of the sky, 
and the small rosy-white stars of its spring blossom- 



The Olive. 



81 



ing, and the beads of sable fruit scattered by 
autumn along its topmost boughs — the right, in 
Israel, of the stranger, the fatherless, and the 
widow, — and, more than all, the softness of the 
mantle, silver gray, and tender like the down on a 
bird's breast, with which, far away, it vails the un- 
dulation of the mountains ; these it had been well 
for them to have seen and drawn, whatever they 
had left unstudied in the galleiy."* 

The unique beauty of the olive tree represents the 
peculiar grace and comeliness of the church. Its 
beauty, too, is perennial. It holds its evergreen 
leafage of form, sacrament, and ordinance through 
all the changing centuries. Other religious systems 
have flourished in auspicious times, spreading out 
a dense foliage of show and ceremony, and have 
offered refreshing shadows, and held out blossom- 
ing promises of good to men But when the storms 
of trouble blew, and the winter of death announced 
his coming, these summer religions faded in leaf, 
and stood, at length, the naked wood, shadeless and 
fruitless after all. 

There are, growing here and there, in life's fair 
summer da}<s, many attractive religions, broad in 



* Ruskin. 

6 



82 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



leaf, and beautiful in blossom, — the fashionable, 
free-and-easy sects, where a man can be a saint, and 
yet take hand with the sons and daughters of per- 
dition in the dance, at the bar, and at the gambling 
table. But the coming autumn — and how soon 
it comes! — will reveal the barrenness and desola- 
tion of all systems that have not rootage about the 
Rock of Eternal Truth, — that draw not the oil of 
the Spirit which alone produces ever-greenness of 
leaf and abundant fruitfulness down to old age in 
eveiy branch of the church whose beauty is as the 
olive tree. 

The Christian church has lived, beautiful and 
prolific in all seasons, in all ages, in all lands, 
steadily increasing, and always blooming and bear- 
ing, more and more beautiful in the sight of angels — ■ 
beautiful in promises, beautiful in performances, 
beautiful in every ordinance, in every service, in 
every association ! And although the members, one 
by one, may disappear, as the task-done leaves of 
the olive when they fall, still the church, as an 
organization, lives in perennial and ever-expanding 
verdure, as the olive tree whose foliage is over-full 
and evergreen! 



The Olive. 



83 



" where are kings and empires now 
Of old that went and came? 
But, Lord, thy Church is standing yet, 
A thousand years the same I" 

We mark her towering branches, 

And her deep rootage strong ; 
We hear among the quivering leaves 

Her sweet, unending song. 

Unshaken on eternal hills 

Immovable she grows, 
To yield for all the world a balm 

Which heals the sinner's woes. 

We have seen that the symmetry of the olive 
tree, although comprising such odd and unsightly 
branches, is all the more beautiful because of 
Nature's triumph over all irregularities by weaving 
them into far more exquisite than any architectural 
design. 

And this is a special beauty in the church, The 
various gifts and distinct personalities of men, all 
infused by the life of Christ, and consecrated to his 
service, are, taken together, so wisely adjusted by 
divine grace in the hearts of all, as to make, in 
angels' sight, a spectacle unequaled in beauty and 
grandeur in all the universe beside. 

The world may apply its fastidious magnifying 
glasses to some individual Christian, and, looking 



84 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



at him alone, may criticise and censure his life and 
work ; but the world is too low to see one single 
disciple, even the humblest, from the proper stand- 
point ; and it is not susceptible of sufficient culture 
to view the church as a whole. There is a con- 
sistency in ever} 7 member growing and fruit-bearing 
in his place, high or low, close in or far out on the 
tree, which radiates in glory to God ! It is said of 
the whole church of the faithful, " His branches 
shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive 
tree," 

3. The Olive Tree is a Type of Peace. There is 
a tradition among the Greeks that the first olive 
branch that reached their country was carried by a 
dove from Phoenicia to the temple of Jupiter in 
Epiris. It is a remarkable fact that almost every 
nation has adopted the olive branch as an emblem 
of peace. Even in remote and barbarous countries, 
on newly discovered coasts, and among savage sea- 
islanders, the green olive branch, carried in the 
hand, or inserted in the ground, is a pledge of 
peace ; as if the whole family of man, wherever wan- 
dered and however lost, were influenced by a secret 
Providence to recognize the same identical sign of 
amity and good will. This custom, religiously ob- 



I'he Olive. 



85 



served by all tribes and conditions of people, 
although unknown to each other, dwelling on oppo- 
site sides of the globe, seems to connect, by its 
association the whole human race to the fatherhood 
of Noah and the fainilyhood of the ark. It links to 
the memory of all generations the incident recorded 
on the page of inspiration, — that of the dove bring- 
ing in its mouth the beautiful token of God's anger 
turned away, of receding waters, and of a new cove- 
nant of peace with men. Not a nation or a race of 
people to this day, has forgotten the great lesson 
which the dove — emblem in itself of the Holy 
Spirit — taught to the world in that earlj 7 day when 
all human hearts were kindred indeed. 

It is observed by travelers that doves delight in 
resorting to olive groves. The branches and foliage 
of this tree afford a home, where, unmolested, they 
may rear their young, and sing the quiet hours 
away. The soft, low cooing of the dove blends in 
sweet and perpetual unison with the breeze that 
whispers through the boughs, and murmurs the 
sacredness of the relation they bear, the one to the 
other, the olive and the dove ! 

So does peace dwell in the church of Christ the 
Lord. The Holy Spirit breathes, as music sweet 



86 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



and low, through all the branches, waking melody 
in every soul. The echoes of the angel-song still 
vibrate in the air about the Sacred Olive Tree, 
" Peace on earth, good will to men !" Yes, the 
Kingdom of Christ is a peaceful kingdom! The 
disciples of Jesus are called peace-makers, and 
blessed are they as the children of God! 1 ' Peace 
I leave with you," said the risen Redeemer, before 
he ascended to glory. such peace ! — holy, per- 
fect, constant, heavenly peace ! It is the same in 
all the world, wherever a heart loves Jesus, and 
believes. The olive branch, universal emblem of 
peace, has more than full realization of meaning 
in the Omnipresent Spirit, speaking peace to 
thousands in a day — the Omniscient Spirit, illu- 
minating the church in all the world — the Om- 
nipotent Spirit, reaching and conquering rebellious 
millions ! 

As Noah's family were the more closely united in 
love by the grandeur of their deliverance, and by the 
sympathetic fellowship within the ark, receiving the 
olive branch from the dove with one thrill of grate- 
ful emotion as if their hearts had but one pulse and 
one hope, — so may all believers in all churches 
receive the Holy Spirit in that deep unity of affec- 



The Olive. 



87 



tion and love and gratitude which makes Christians 
all one in Christ the Lord ! 

" first of human blessings ! and supreme ! 
Fair Peace, how lovely, how delightful thou ! 
By whose wide tie the kindred sous of men 
Live brothers like, in amity combined, 
And unsuspicious faith." 

u Then, then shall all men's good 
Be each man's rule, and universal Peace 
Lie like a shaft of light across the land, 
And like a lane of beams athwart the sea. 
Through all the circle of the golden yearl" 



IT. 



THE MYRTLE TREE. 



I saw by night, and behold, a man riding upon a red 
horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in 
the bottom. Zechariah, i : 8. 



ECHABJAH, a fellow-prophet and co- 



worker with Haggai, has been s^lecl the 



1 1 "sun among the minor prophets." His 

visions and announcements, almost the last in the 
Old Testament record, refer, with peculiar dis- 
tinctness, to Christ. The text is the beginning 
of a revelation which was intended, doubtless, to 
comfort the Jews, but lately freed from Babylonian 
captivity, and to stimulate them in the building of 
the temple. 

The first portrayal of this inspired and eloquent 
teacher opens upon a grove of myrtle trees clus- 
tered in the valley. The picture is outlined by 
surrounding hills in the dim distance, by night; 
and a changeful mingling of shadows and starlight 
among the swaying branches, gives life to the 
scene. The lowly myrtles, trembling in the night- 




88 



The Myrtle. 



89 



wind, vailed by the darkness, unprotected by 
watchmen or walls, but standing silent in the 
gloom, and obscure in the valley, impressively 
represented the solitary and pitiable condition of 
the Jewish church in the time of the prophet. 

But this is only the background of the picture. 
The center and glory of the vision is the man 
riding on a red horse, pausing, standing still in the 
midst of the myrtle trees, as if he had come to 
remain, to protect, to endure, to drive away the 
shadows, and illuminate the valley ! If the myrtle 
trees symbolize the church in the days of ad- 
versity, the rider upon the red horse symbolizes 
the man, Christ Jesus, the same who appeared to 
Joshua, with drawn sword in his hand, as the 
Captain of the host of the Lord — the same who 
appeared to John, long years thereafter, the Rider 
with the bow and the crown, going forth conquer- 
ing and to conquer. 

Although the church was weak, despised, and 
desolate, Christ was nevertheless seen in the midst 
of it, prepared for conflict, to bear in his own 
body the suffering that should bring liberty and 
peace. Looking upon the shaded myrtle grove, 
and beholding the strange Horseman there, how 



90 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



forcefully the language of Isaiah sounds in the 
ear! 

"Who is this that cometh from Edom, with 
dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glo- 
rious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness 
of his strength ? 

" I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save 

" Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and 
thy garments like him that treadeth the wine-fat ? 

" I have trodden the wine-press alone ; and of 
the people there was none with me : for I will tread 
them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury ; 
and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my gar- 
ments, and I will stain all my raiment, for the day 
of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my 
redeemed is come." 

In the Old Testament we see Christ riding on a 
red horse, representing the terror of that dispensa- 
tion ; but in the New Testament, we see him seated 
upon a white horse, the Faithful and True, showing 
that he has gained the victoiy, and rides hence- 
forth the Prince of Peace, triumphing in the hearts 
of all his people. 

The man upon the red horse clearly signifies 
Christ, the Deliverer of the church ; and the 



The Myrtle. 



91 



myrtle trees, grouped in the valley, represent the 
saints of God, the immortal children of the cru- 
cified, but risen and reigning Lord. 

The myrtle, among the Jews, was an emblem of 
justice. The Greeks and Romans dedicated it to 
Venus ; and used it to make wreaths to crown ac- 
cepted lovers, and to decorate the brows of success- 
ful contestants in the race. 

It is a diminutive tree, almost a shrub ; but it 
grows from a hard, woody root, with an upright 
stem, branching closely, and forming a dense round 
foliage of ovate and lanceolate evergreen leaves. 
It flowers profusely, in star-like clusters of snowy 
white, fringed with tints of delicate purple. Its 
berries are aromatic and astringent, and have been 
celebrated by the ancient poets as possessing a pe- 
culiar medicinal property, efficacious in healing the 
maladies incident to the climate where it grows. 
Its fruit produces both wine and oil, and, in either 
form, is esteemed a delicate luxury among the in- 
habitants of the East. 

The myrtle is most beautiful w r hen small, stand- 
ing in its youthful vigor as a mere shrub, w T ith 
elastic branches and glowing leaves ; for when it 
rises to maturity, its lower boughs, overshadowed 



92 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



by the thick top, lose their leaves, roughen in bark, 
and become unsightly in appearance. 

In the valleys, myrtles grow among laurel roses 
to the height of twelve and fifteen reet ; and when 
in bloom are surpassingly beautiful. The perfume 
of the myrtle is richer than that of the rose, en- 
chanting every one, and filling the soul with de- 
lightful sensations, such as are inspired by no other 
aroma in the world. 

1. The Myrtle Tree grows in Groujos. This tree 
belongs to that species of vegetation which flour- 
ishes only in associated growths. A single root 
has sufficient vitality to send forth, at different 
points through the sod, a number of flexible stems, 
each one of which will become a distinct tree, de- 
riving all the sap it requires, and growing as one of 
a cluster of trunks from the same support. It will 
wither and die, if an attempt be made to cultivate 
it as a single myrtle tree, separate and alone. It 
must share the influence of surrounding m3 r rtles. 
It will readily divide its own root-sustenance to 
maintain and mature kindred trees by its side, to 
grow up into the same sunlight, and wave, and 
cast fragrance through the same free air. If it 
would be appropriate in speaking of an inanimate 



The Myrtle. 



93 



tiling, to say it, the myrtle might well be called the 
most unjealous of trees ! For it flourishes best 
when in the midst of flourishing fellows : it seems 
ever growing and glowing the more beautifully 
when touching its glossy leaves against the leaves 
of adjacent myrtles, a dense grove of them stand- 
ing and waving welcomes to one another from 
every branch, and whispering sweet sisterhood in 
eveiy leaf by day and night. 

So do the saints of God on earth best develop 
their thoughts and affections by association. The 
Christian is pre-eminently a social being ; and his 
faith and work require a constant fellowhood of 
heart and mind and soul. No man can be a prosper- 
ous Christian, shut out of the world as a monk ; and 
no woman can fill her appointed sphere in grace 
by vowing herself into a nunnery, and living apart 
from the church of the common people. The true 
disciples of the Lord Jesus are intuitively drawn 
toward each other, and are never so happy as when 
in hand-reaching proximity, and mingling their 
voices in prayer and praise ; or, seated together 
in the sanctuary as a company with mutual rights 
and kindred interests, receiving lessons of divine 
truth from the Book. * * * * * 



9 1 The Gospel in the Trees. 

Malachi, the last of the prophets, tells us that 
they who loved the Lord spake, often, one to 
another. When Jesus himself was on the earth, 
his followers circled round him in companies and 
multitudes, and he taught them together, and en- 
couraged their fellowship. Just before he was 
crucified, he met the twelve in social converse 
and repast, blessing and breaking bread for them 
all, and instituting as a perpetual ordinance the 
Eucharistic Communion. And after his resurrec- 
tion, he greeted the little band of his friends in an 
upper room, breathed a benediction upon them, 
and emphasized his desire that they should love 
one another and sympathize with one another, and 
help one another forever more. 

The establishment of the Christian church is to 
group the true-hearted and like-minded together for 
mutual edification, enjoyment and growth. It is to 
bind as a family all the faithful in any community, 
and thus to develop the capacities of all by insti- 
tuting a fraternal brotherhood of heart, in which 
all Christ's friends shall be equal in right and 
in privilege. Paul recognizes and intensifies this 
thought, in his letter to the Galatians, " As we 
have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all 



The Myrtle. 



95 



men, especially unto them who are of the household 
of faith." And again, in one of his letters to the 
Thessalonians, " Ye are taught of God to love one 
another . . We beseech you that ye increase 
more and more." And yet again to Colossians ; 
"Ye are called in one body and be ye thankful." 
The same idea is more elaborate in the twelfth 
chapter of First Corinthians, " For by one Spirit 
are we all baptized into one body, whether we be 
Jews or Gentiles, whether w^e be bond or free; 
and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." 

There is a sad oversight of duty among Chris- 
tian people in this relation. They are not all like 
the in} r rtles, satisfied with their grouping, and 
forever growing grander and nearer to each other 
in the connection which God has instituted in the 
church. There is a disposition to group with the 
world, — as if myrtles should be mingled with 
brambles and thorns ! Look into the social re- 
lations of church families, and you will find them 
mixing and mating wilh infidels, skeptics, and 
blasphemers. To an alarming degree, Mammon 
gauges the social attachments, after all, and not 
Christ. How seldom, when parties and entertain- 
ments are given in Christian homes — proper 



06 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



enough as culturers of acquaintanceship and 
strengthened of social ties — how seldom are 
church affinities recognized ; and how slow are in- 
vitations in reaching the poor and obscure of the 
household of faith ; and at the same time how the 
enameled billets-doux will fly as if with swallow's 
wings to the doors of the aristocratic disbeliever, 
who, receiving the missive with a mischievous 
curtsy, will laugh behind a sleeve at Christians 
courting the devil, and disdaining their own ! 

Instead of Christians being distinctly grouped, 
and flourishing by the influence of one another's 
example under the sunlight of God's Spirit, and 
standing uncompromisingly separate from the 
" evil communications that corrupt good manners/' 
we see them too often blighted to a half-and-half 
kind of growth in grace, leafing and blooming re- 
ligiously, but emitting the odor and bearing the. 
fruit of perdition. When will the disciples of 
Jesus learn the duty and enjoy the glory of living 
in the world, unconquered by its deceitful powers? 
— living and laboring to exemplify by truth, sober- 
ness, dignity, consistency, and all the amiabilities of 
a truly consecrated heart, the spirit of the Servant- 
master? For thus, only, may Christians, in faith 



The Myrtle. 



97 



and form, become evangelists in nature and life, 
mingling with sinners daily, not to learn, but to 
teach, by intuitive example as well as by doctrinal 
and emotional word, the power and beauty of re- 
lationship with Christ, and the blessedness of 
association with the pure in heart who see and 
commune with God. 

As an organized band of believers, it is the 
business of the church ( not so much to be 
spiritual policemen, beating about the walks of 
men, to see who of the saints ma} 7 have been 
decoyed into trouble, and to bring them by the 
collar to the ecclesiastical lock-up ; but rather to be 
councilmen — fellow-helpers and patient workers — 
to provide for the reclamation of delinquents, and 
for the safety, comfort, and culture of all. The 
church should take the question of amusements, 
for example, into prayerful consideration, and 
adopt and consecrate such exercises as accord with 
the gospel in educating and refining the people. 
Satan aims to purloin from the church certain 
auxiliaries to educational development, — music, 
art, literature, science, — and if he succeed in 
appropriating all these agencies to himself, leaving 

nothing in the church but restraint, awe, fear, 

7 



98 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



monotone, and form, — he will as effectually accom- 
plish his purposes, as if he had piled brimstone 
barriers between the sinner and the Saviour. The 
church should have its parlor, its library, and its 
wholesome social entertainments, as well as its 
pulpit, its pew, and its weekty lectures. The 
Scriptures authorize the one as much as the other. 
The young people, baptized into the Holy Com- 
munion of the Saints, should be not only granted, 
but graciously furnished, at any cost, that essential 
sociality they desire ; and the privilege should be so 
freed from the unhallowed fashions of the world, as 
never to invite improper exercise, or indulge in 
alien companionship. The Christian Home and 
the Eternal Heaven are alike in affinities, in 
associations, in pleasures, in purity, and in peace ; 
and if their doors swing open toward each other to 
afford a passage from mortality to immortality, 
why should the church be made a stumbling block 
between, by prohibiting in its creeds, what it 
confers in its gospel upon all, — the liberty o a 
thorough physical, mental, moral, and spiritual 
education — a rich, round, life-development, from 
which the foolish dance, the trifling theater, and 
fastidious fashion, by all their glittering para pher- 



The Myrtle. 



99 



nalia, can no more tempt a human soul to stoop, 
than they can tempt an angel out of Paradise in 
search of joy ! 

Christ made religion attractive by his own 
amiable and loving life, so that little children 
circled around him to be blest, and were taken up 
bodily in his arms, and compared to the inhabitants 
of heaven — happy, cheerful, free, exultant, and full 
of song and pleasantry. And if the church to-day 
would but provide for the proper social culture of 
its youth, turning the breath of its censorious 
criticism into kindly counsel and advice; if Chris- 
tian people would consecrate every legitimate and 
healthful amusement for the good of all, then 
w r ould young disciples not only be more thoroughly 
Christianized and useful in the world, but Satan 
would be completely disarmed of a power which he 
continues to wield for the destruction of human 
souls. The method ism of men may rack it self to 
pieces in fitting humanity to its contracted formula; 
but the Methodism of the Gospel glorifies itself by 
developing all the faculties of the human mind, by 
enlarging all the affections of the human heart, and 
by strengthening all the muscles of the human 
bod}\ And it demands that this training shall be 



100 



The Gospel in the Trees, 



afforded in a righteous and reasonable manner; 
and until religion corrects indolence, removes 
dyspepsia, regulates the pulse, and the markets* 
and amusements, and all secular, as well as all 
spiritual thought and life, it is defective and un- 
Christly. When the spirit of the Master shall 
possess and prompt the hearts of all Christian 
people to work for souls as they are, prisoned in 
fleshly bodies, — to win, to draw, to help, to happify, 
to bless, and elevate human beings, by bringing 
them to the living Christ, rather than to the dead 
letter of a sect, — to Him who sets men free from the 
law of sin and death, then will the world's low and 
corrupting substitutes for amusement and instruc- 
tion, the theater, the ball-room, and the gambling- 
table, be thrust out, and kept out where they 
belong, in the blackness of outer darkness forever. 
Then the Christian man and woman will be so 
educated, and so supplied by perpetual aids to 
their development, as to mount up on wings as 
eagles, and soar grandly be3 r ond the world's vain 
baubles to the region of celestial joys. And then 
the association of all rising Christian people will be 
complete ; then in honor will tbey prefer one 
another; then in mutual affection and in co-operative 



The Myrtle. 



101 



work, will they grow up into Christ in all things as 
if millennial summer were come ! 

"Even so, who loves the Lord aright, 
]STo soul of man can worthless find \ 
All will be precious in his sight, 

Since Christ on all hath shined : 
But chiefly Christian souls ; for they, 
Though worn and soiled with sinful clay, 
Are yet to eyes that see them true, 
All glistening with baptismal dew." 

2. The Myrtle Tree Grows in the Valley. The 
man on the red horse stood among the myrtle trees 
that were in the bottom. The mj^rtle is indigenous 
to low, moist ground, and flourishes in retired and 
quiet places, in secluded valleys, along the damp 
soil by winding water courses, hidden from the 
traveler's eye until he comes immediately upon it, 
in its shrubby green clusters surrounded by hills. 
It does not grow tall to be admired from a distance; 
but it is most beautiful in its lowly stature, and 
shining leaves when viewed closely in its native 
place ; and it bears the touch and test of familiarity 
with greatest honor to itself. There is a graceful- 
ness in the form of its branches, and a fineness 
in the texture of its leaves, which captivate the eye 
of the stranger standing near, and bespeak his 



102 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



admiration at first sight. Down to the valley the 
myrtle invites the lover of beauty and the student 
of Nature, for lessons which the mountains and 
their high forests are unqualified to teach. 

The saints of God on earth are like the myrtles ; 
the}' dwell in the valleys. Their graces are most 
comely and comforting down in the quiet retire- 
ments of home and neighborhood. The great hills 
of the world's business, forested all over by politics 
and fashion, and mined all through for mammon, 
however they may hide Christian communities, do 
not vail away the sunlight of heaven above, nor 
prevent the refreshing dews of the Holy Spirit. 

The Christian is humble and childlike, influencing 
the sinner, and enjoying Christ in his own soul, 
more by his domestic life and every-day temper 
and talk, than by the formal religionism which is 
known by the solemn tones and pharisaical straight- 
edgedness of sanctuary and Sabbath alone. 

The wicked are lofty, high-minded, and haughty, 
ever striving for the front places in society, for 
self's dear sake, — robing themselves in fashion's 
gaudiest stjde, broadening their acres, enlarging 
their mansions, exalting their own reputation by 
every sort of inflation to greatness and glory, 



The Myrtle. 



103 



along: the heights of the world. There is an un- 
hallowed ambition in men and women to outshine, 
rather than to outlove ; to outgather, rather than 
to outgive ; to outsoar, rather than to outsing ; to 
outenjoy, rather than to outsuffer ; to rise to giddy 
elevations in the community, in business, in fame, 
in wealth ; and all of this merely to glorify self at 
the expense of others, and at the sorrow of Christ. 

But the prophet saw the man on the red horse, 
not riding among the great oaks of the hill, but 
down among the myrtles in the bottom. Jesus is 
with the humble, the few, the faithful, low in their 
appointed place. He is among the weak, the 
obscure, and the unknown, if they are grouped in 
equality as brothers, with common aims and 
mutual recognition ; and he is in their midst to 
bless, to defend, and to deliver. Jesus stands to-day 
as Conqueror with any people, however insignificant 
in number, and dishonored in name, who love one 
another, who recognize the republicanism of the 
gospel, who believe the personal privileges and 
conscience-rights of all saints to be equal, and the 
interests of all mutual and inseparable forever ! 
O, brethren, loyal to a country like ours, and to a 
Leader like Jesus, it is better for us to be in the 



lOi The Gospel in the Trees. 



valley of the ecclesiastical world, unpruned of re- 
ligious rights, than to be trimmed and transplanted 
upon the hill, and shadowed by foreign growths! 
Better to be lowly, evergreen myrtles, a little arm- 
entertwining group in the bottom, with the Red 
Horse Conqueror as only Leader and Lord, than 
to be magnificent poplars on the height, growing a 
summer greenness which the autumnal frosts shall 
wither in a night ! 

The saints of God are most effectually defended, 
and most richly developed in the valley. They are 
left here for that discipline and training which • 
only the soil and shelter of the low ground will 
produce. They shall never be forsaken if they 
remain humble and contented in the sphere where 
grace has appointed them to grow. If an angel 
cheered Hagar in the wilderness ; fed the hungry 
pilgrims in the desert; strengthened the Son of 
Man in the garden, and stood sentinel at his grave; 
delivered a persecuted apostle from prison at mid- 
night, — surely the lowly and troubled Christian of 
any age or land shall not be overcome by reason 
of his obscurity. 

And at last, when the valley of the shadow of 
death shall be trodden by the trembling pilgrim 



The Myrtle. 



105 



alone ; then will the angel of the Lord, the rod and 
staff of promise, the death-conquering Redeemer 
himself, sustain the sinking soul, and bear it across 
the waters to the shore of everlasting peace. 

" Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, 
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." 

Wherever the Christian maj r have been exalted 
in the esteem of his fellow-men ; to whatever emi- 
nence he may have attained, in learning, in work, 
in benevolence, or in earthly honor, — he must at 
last go down to the valley. " For it is appointed 
unto men once to die." Christ is with his disciples 
anywhere and everywhere ; but he is nearer, and 
therefore stronger, down in the valley of the last 
shadow. Zechariah saw him as a Conqueror for 
his people in the valley. The angels saw him a 
Victor for himself, and all believers, in the tomb. 
The disciples saw him risen, with Death put under 
his feet, and watched him ascending the skies to 
heaven. And now he is the first fruits of all who 
sleep in the valley of the grave. Have you not 
followed a dear one down into this shadow ; down, 
clown, until your own eyes were dim in the strange 
darkness? And there, when all earthly friends 
had fled, and all worldly honors faded away, away, 



106 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



there was Jesus seen all the more distinctly in the 
night as a Conqueror, standing among the myrtle 
trees, to defend and to deliver his own redeemed ! 

" Courage ! We travel through a darksome cave ; 
But still, as nearer to the light we draw, 
Fresh gales will reach us from the Eden air, 
And wholesome dews of heaven our foreheads lave, 
The darkness lighten more, till, full of awe, 
We stand in open sunshine — unaware V* 

" Thither we hasten through these regions dim ; 
But lo ! the wide wings of the seraphim 
Shine in the sunset! On that joyous shore 
Our lightened hearts shall know 
The life of long ago ; — 
The sorrow-burdened past shall fade 
Forever more." 

3. The Myrtle Tree is Ever-fragrant. The 
fragrance of the myrtle is not in blossoms that 
open, glow for a little season, and then fade away ; 
but in the evergreen leaves. It is fragrant all the 
year, yielding its sweet odors through winter's 
rough blasts, as well as through the showers and 
sunshine of summer time. And the more the 
leaves are tossed, the more richly do they exhale 
their delicious aroma ; and when bruised, they are 
most fragrant of all, diffusing as they are crushed, 
the same delightful odors as long as a fragment of 
leaf remains. 



The Myrtle. 



107 



Such is the nature of Christian example. It is 
not the mere influence of word, of promise, of 
sunny summer song, or the friendship of prosper- 
it} T , when times are easy, and health and honor 
fair. There is an unconscious, but perpetual power 
circling out from a true disciple's life which breathes 
the same good will and performs the same kind 
actions, regardless of circumstances, the rolling 
year around, and all of life-time through. The 
Christian is like his Lord, who is "the same, 
yesterday, and to-day, and forever." His temper 
is even, his patience unbroken, his enjoyments un- 
failing, his peace like a river, sparkling and sing- 
ing evermore. There is no set time for show, or 
glitter, or display. There is no rehearsal of piety 
for great occasions ! There are no programmed 
scenes to be unrolled according to chronometer and 
audience in the panorama of his life, and ac- 
companied by phrasely word and tinkling music 
set to the exhibition. 

The believer's influence is like the fragrance of 
the myrtle tree, an inseparable sweetness of life, 
gracious as it is unctying; and it breathes through 
storms of adversity and bereavement as freely as 
in mornings of dewy joy. And when he is most 



108 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



severely tried, troubled and persecuted, then is his 
example the most Christly in forbearance and 
love. Like the myrtle-leaf, bruised and torn, the 
saint of God, in the time of his sorest affliction, 
exhales the most heavenly spirit all abroad, as if 
the airs and blooms of Paradise should yet make 
Eden of this wilderness! 

u Praised be the myrtles green, 
In the quiet valley seen, 
And the dark which makes us think 
Of the sunny river-brink, 

Where the ransomed tread. 
Praised be the vision gleams, 
And the storm that worketh dreams 

Of calm unfinished. 

" Praised be the day and even, 
And the night-time^ solemn need ; 
For in God's dear book we read, 
' No night shall be in heaven.' 

" Earth, we Christians praise thee thus, 
Even for the change that comes, 
With a grief from thee to us ! 
For thy cradles and thy tombs, 
For the pleasant corn and wine, 
And summer heat ; and also for 
The frost upon the sycamore, 
And hail upon the vine." 

more than sect or self the truth we praise : 

Above our friendships hold we God ; 
And stricken be these feet ere they despise 

The path their Master trod ; 



The Myrtle. 



109 



So let our banner be again unfurled, 
And spread its motto to the breeze, — 

The Heavenly Conqueror subdues the world, 
And stands among the myrtle trees ! 



THE WILLOW TREE. 




By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yta 
ive wept, when we remembered Zion. 

We hanged our harps upon the. willows thereof. 

Psalm exxxvii. I, 2. 
TJiey shall spring up as willows by the water cour- 
ses. Isaiah xliv. 4. 

HERE are many varieties of the willow, 
exclusive of the poplar, to which it is kin- 
dred in nature. In some species it is 
found in almost every part of the world ; and it be- 
comes acclimated by culture to the conditions and 
changes of temperature in every zone. 

The willow is a very graceful tree, with slender 
and swaying branches, long, narrow, and pointed 
leaves, equally brilliant on both sides, though 
general^ differing in shade of green, and always of 
fine and shining texture. The limbs are flexible 
and bright, and because of these excellent qualities 
are often wrought into familiar — though not always 
appreciated — articles of home and church furniture, 
such, for example, as canary cages and collection 

baskets ! 

110 



The Willow. 



113 



Planted Dear water courses, its wide-extending 
roots serve to bind together the particles of moist 
earth, and thus to resist the ravages of the floods. 
The willow protects the banks it ornaments ; and it 
is easily transplanted to the shores of distant 
streams, and may be cultivated to make firm and 
beautiful the sandy margins w r herein it weaves its 
roots and along which it spreads its verdant cover- 
ing of foliage. 

There is no latitude into wiiich man has pene- 
trated, where vegetation does not exist. Even on 
the bleak arctic plains, out almost to the very pole, 
along the frozen edges of rivers where light and 
heat are at a minimum ; there, mantled nearly all 
the year in snow, is the lichen, and not far south of 
it, its hardy neighbor, the willow, sharing in the 
desolation, and both content with a short summer 
and a diminutive growth. But hitherward still 
farther, where streams flow beneath warmer sun- 
shine, and where man has cultivated the soil, and 
built cities, and cut canals, and enjoyed the most 
bountiful of earth's luxuries through many genera- 
tions ; — in that region, once the center of civiliza- 
tion and greatness, now "an outlying province of 

the Turkish Empire where sultan and firman are 

8 



114 The Gospel in the Trees. 



often superseded by the lawless will of sheik or 
Pacha where two renowned rivers converge, upon 
whose banks cluster the most hallowed histories of 
the past; in the range of low T -land between the riv- 
ers, and upon the shores of both, and within the 
broad valleys that extend outward from either ; in 
Mesopotamia, upon the sacred banks of the Eu- 
phrates and the Tigris, rivers of Babylon, — there do 
we find the willow T growing luxuriantly still, almost 
the only living thing in that now melancholy waste, — 
growing green and graceful yet, as in former centu- 
ries, a tree of peculiar interest, and a teacher of 
patient lessons to us this side of the sea, and far 
down the Christian Era. 

Tradition, strengthened by the opinions of 
several eminent Bibliographers, locates the garden 
of Eden at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphra- 
tes. Even the calm, untheoretical Calvin inclined 
to this belief. The ancient world has been searched 
through all its area to trace, if possible, the 
boundaries of Eden ; but the site of that blessed 
place is not known to mortal man. But if the 
waters of the Euphrates murmur ever so faintly of 
the first Adam, the rippling Jordan speaks plainly 
of the second, the Lord from heaven. Promised in 



The Willow. 



115 



Eden, lie came in the fullness of time, a man of sor 
rows, bringing joy to the world. If the paradise 
of Adam is lost, with all the original perfectness 
and beauty of man's estate, and its once magnifi- 
cent river-shores are obscured in unlifted shadows, — 
there is, after all, a brighter and broader paradise 
yet to open its gates of pearl for all who love and 
serve the Lord ; and through that happy place shall 
flow the River of Life ; and there shall grow the 
Trees whose leaves never wither, and upon whose 
branches no untuned harp shall be suspended by 
trembling captive's hand ! But here, 

" The river whispers to the willow 

With a sad, mysterious tone, 
As the bubbles of each billow 

Gurgling break on bank and stone ; 
What saith the river as it glistens 

In the sun-glints through the tree, 
While the bough stoops down and listens 

To its plaintive melody? 

" Like my waters, life is flying — 

Brightest joys have shortest stay — 
As my waves speed onward sighing, 

With thy singing far away : % 
Human hopes are like the bubbles 

Swoln and glittering on my tide, 
Till the rocks, like earthly troubles, 

Meet and wreck them as they glide. 



116 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



u High o'er willow, high o'er river, 

Soars a lark in airy rings, 
While his voice thrills to the quiver 

Of his sun-illumined wings ; 
And the ether-vault is riven 

With his glad song as he flies — 
1 Seek, like me, thy joys in heaven, 

And thy hopes within the skies.' " 

Though the grandeur of former scenery and tue 
glory of ancient days have departed from the 
rivers of Babylon, still, the willows upon which the 
exiled Hebrews hung their harps, and under whose 
shades they wept with memories of Zion far away, 
have kept the rivers fringed with green, and have 
never ceased to whisper, through their drooping 
branches, sad memories of the past, and longing 
hopes for the better time to come. 

Doubtless, somewhere near these rivers' mingling 
waters, the first accents of mercy were heard, when 
Eden's gates were closed and guarded hy the 
angel of the Lord. Here, hopes which seemed 
quenched in darkness, were re-lighted; and from 
that hour of promise, the fulfillment has been more 
and more complete with passing years to all the 
scattered sons of men. The thunders of Sinai did 
not drown the whispers of the Eden willows. 
David, in his day, was not unmindful of the hover- 



The Willow. 



117 



ing benediction, and seized his harp and sang, 
" The Lord is my shepherd : I shall not want. He 
maketh me to lie down in green pastures ; he lead- 
eth me beside the still waters." Then David's Lord 
exclaims, " Lo, I come; in the volume of the book 
it is written of me;" and, at last, he added; " It is 
finished !" Then the promise of Eden was fulfilled ; 
and that is far better than if its literal boundaries 
had been kept unbroken. The old Eden is lost, 
that the heaventy Paradise may henceforth be the 
only attraction for all earth's toiling and troubled 
people. All the hopes which were kindled in the 
human heart somewhere near the Euphrates and 
Tigris at the beginning, became abundant fruitage 
near the Jordan and Kedron in the fullness of time. 
If we can not find the garden where Adam sinned, 
we can find the garden where Jesus suffered ; if we 
can not trace the borders of the earthly Eden, to the 
mystic E'astward, we can point to Calvaiy and the 
cross, and beyond, to the Eden of immortality in 
heaven, which is far nearer and far better. 

But, to-day, opposite Diarbekir, in the dreary 
Babylonian land, there stands a small village called 
Cutterbal, desolate and waste, like all the Turkish 
towns ; but there are a few Christians at Cutterbal, 



118 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



humble, devoted, and happy, who have been won 
to the Saviour by the words of an American 
missionary. One of these converts is said to have 
waded in secret, by night, across the Tigris, 
groping out to the farther shore from among the 
willows, prompted by pity for his countrymen, and 
animated only by Christian love, parting the 
drooping willow-boughs by one hand, and holding 
his New Testament in the other, to read and speak 
of the world's Redeemer. The result of the effort 
is a church of more than fifty equally zealous 
members, organized and working for Jesus ! There 
where the harps of the disconsolate Israelites were 
hung upon the willows, where Zion's songs were 
silenced in the sadness of captivity, now are 
heard the exultant hymns of Christian praise. 
There the native children of the world's Old Eden 
ground, are learning the melodies of Zion re- 
deemed ; and the name of Jesus is honored even 
by the willow-shored rivers of Bab} T lon, where the 
Hebrew captives sat down to weep in the ancient 
clays ! 

The river flowed; the willows stooped; 

The lonely Hebrews crouched and wept; 
The people mocked ; the mourners drooped 

Over the memories they kept. 



The Willow. 



119 



No child of Israel smiles or sings. 

Or smites the harp with cunning hand; 

We will not speak the sacred things 
Of home, here in the stranger's land. 

u Remember Zion once again ! 

Remember Zion, Lord," they cry ; 
"Repent thee, Lord, and turn our pain !" 
Silent the broad, bright waters lie : 
Silent, the shining firmaments- 
Silent, the towers in glory set; 
Silent, red Edom in his tent 

Sleeps ; but the Lord will not forget ! 

But, one or two special lessons : — 

1. The Willow is a Tree of the Riverside. 
Willows are mentioned in both passages before us in 
connection with rivers, or water-courses. This tree 
grows only in soil saturated perpetually by the 
moisture of running streams. In speaking of the 
willow, we intuitively think of the water washing its 
roots, and reflecting its beautiful proportions of 
curving branch and rounded foliage. And in 
selecting from the great variety of willows a single 
species for this hour's contemplation, our thoughts 
have been guided to the banks of the Euphrates by 
the botanical name which scholars have attached 
to the weeping willow, Salyx Babylonica, showing 
at once the sacred historical associations of the tree. 
Tlr's reference is emphasized by the waitings of 



120 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



different authors of ancient times ; Herodotus, who 
pays tribute to the watery willow ; and the Latin 
poet, Ovid, who weaves its pliant and shining 
boughs into exquisite imagery on pages which 
shall be honored while rivers run, or time endures. 

But, perhaps, nothing more beautiful has ever 
been said of the willow and its association with 
the rivers of Babylon, than the lines from a current 
periodical, by Mrs. Akers : — - 

0, willow, why forever weep, 

As one who mourns an endless wrong? 

What hidden woe can lie so deep ? 
What utter grief can last so long? 

The spring makes haste with step elate, 

Your life and beauty to renew ; 
She even bids the roses wait, 

And gives her first sweet care to you. 

The sunshine drapes your limbs with light, 
The rain braids diamonds in your hair, 

The breeze makes love to you at night, — 
Yet still you droop, and still despair. 

But still, though April's buds unfold, 

Or summer sets the earth aleaf, 
Or autumn tints your robes with gold, 

You sway and sigh in graceful grief. 

Mourn on forever, unconsoled, 

And keep your secret, faithful tree! 
No heart in all the world can hold 

A sweeter grace than constancy. 



The Willow. 



121 



The willow would die on a desert plain, or a 
mountain slope ; its leaves would turn yellow and 
wilt in a midsummer's day, and its branches lose 
their graceful arches by breaking into angular 
fragments under the heat of the sun, or the pres- 
sure of the wind, were there no water to refresh 
and fructify its thirsty roots. The moisture which 
the willow requires, is that w T hich comes from 
running streams, not the dampness of stagnant 
pools, or salty sea. By clear, fresh-watered rivers, 
alone, it flourishes in all its vigor and beauty, 
where every draught taken into its life is pure 
from a plentiful fountain of supply. 

So do Christians spring up as willows by the 
water courses. They grow best when planted near 
that stream which makes glad the city of God. In 
the seventh chapter of the Gospel by St. John, the 
Holy Spirit is compared to a river. The influence 
of the Spirit is perpetual and refreshing, like the 
flowing of a river ; and it is this which gives life to 
the soul. And this river has a channel, the 
church ; and only by drawing near to its reviving 
current as it flows in the word, in the ordinances, 
and in the appointments of the gospel, can any 
human soul be sustained by this heavenly grace 



122 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



If a Christian be removed from his Saviour, and 
from the ever-flowing graces of the Spirit as com- 
municated through the sacraments of the church, 
he will wither and die in holiness. Jeremiah writes 
the record of the man who trusts in mere humantty, 
who "maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart de- 
parteth from the Lord. For he shall be like the 
heath in the desert, and shall not see when good 
cometh ; but shall inhabit the parched places in the 
wilderness, in a salt land, and not inhabited." 

And then, to draw the most striking contrast 
between such a self-trusting or man-trusting mor- 
tal and the true believer, he adds, " Blessed is the 
man who trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the 
Lord is : For he shall be as a tree planted by the 
waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the 
river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her 
leaf shall be green ; and shall not be careful in the 
year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding 
fruit.' 7 

The Ho\y Spirit, in its constant and vitalizing 
influences, is as essential to Christian growth as 
springs of water to the willow tree. Though its 
leaves scatter in autumn upon the waters to be 
floated away ; and though its bare branches are 



The Willow. 



123 



exposed to the icy blasts that freeze the waters 
over ; still, down beneath the frost, and secluded 
from the touch of the furious winter's breath, the 
roots of the willow drink in sweet life for summers 
to come, and the graceful tree stands unchilled in 
its place by the river side. So there must be 
unwavering faith in Christ, through all the changes 
of fortune and governings of circumstance, — in every 
condition and relation of life, in sickness and in 
health, in youth and in old age, on Sabbaths aud 
on weekdays, ever and forever more. 

In time of drought, a willow by the water courses 
is fresh and green, though all other vegetation be 
crisped and faded by the heat. Its leaf does not 
wither, because of its root-planteclness by the un- 
failing river. 

And so it is with the Christian "rooted and 
grounded in love;" he holds his peace and joy, 
and is vigorous and useful, when all who have 
trusted in sect or self, in human philosophy, or 
in any other shallow, unfountained pool of the 
world, are blighted by spiritual disease and death. 
How many mistaken men there are trusting in 
their own inherent strength, far removed from 
the stream of that blest fountain opened in the 



124: The Gospel in the Trees. 



house of David for sin and uncleanness ! How 
many professors of religion in Christendom who 
are holding an unnourished foliage of form and 
word and work, whose hopes are already beginning 
to wither — whose hearts are ahead}' parched hard 
in unbelief — whose lives shall be utterly consumed 
by the anger which blazes across the plains w r here 
streams of mercy never flow! The righteous 
spring up as willows by the water courses ; while 
sinners wither away as heath and stubble on barren 
ground ! 

Then, come ye all to the waters ! Only upon the 
brink of the living stream that gladdens the city 
of God, and flows as a river of salvation along the 
valleys of the world — only on the margin of this 
healing stream — may any Christian hold his spirit- 
ual life and grow in grace, until the eternal atmos- 
phere shall breathe its blessed balm about the soul 
— until every believer become immortal beside the 
River of Life ! 

"There the crystalline stream bursting forth from the throne, 

Flows on and forever will flow ; 
Tts waves as they roll are with melody rife, 
And its waters are sparkling with beauty and life 

In the land which no mortal may know. 
And there on its margin, with leaves ever green, 



The Willow. 



125 



With its fruits healing sickness and woe. 
The fair Tree of Life, in its glory and pride, 
Is fed by that deep, inexhaustible tide 

Of the land which no mortal may know." 

2. The Willow is a Tree of Rapid Growth. 
Along the Ohio river, where willows have been 
planted to protect the banks, it is remarkable how 
soon an abrupt and yellow line of shore becomes 
willowy-walled in dense and even verdure. Twigs 
severed from willow trees, and inserted in the 
moist ground by little children's hands, and no 
larger in circumference than the tiny fingers that 
plant them as play, take root, rise, spread, inter- 
lock, weave in and through each other, until a 
mighty forest borders the river, even before the 
children who assisted in planting it have themselves 
ceased growing. 

The prophet expresses the thought of rapid 
increase when he says that the willows spring up 
by the water courses. There is scarcely any 
growing thing which so quickly rises from a reedy 
shrub to a stately tree, as the willow. And although 
it develops so rapidly, there is a fineness in its 
fibers, a polish to its bark and leaves, and a grace- 
fulness in its general contour, which none of the 
more slowly maturing trees so strikingly exhibit. 



12G 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



So, when a wandering youth or a lost sinner is 
planted, by repentance and faith, beside the stream 
of heavenly grace in the church, and receives the 
influences of the Holy Spirit into the motive-centers 
of his being, it is surprising how quickly he will 
develop as a Christian. Although he was set 
growing in the society of the saints with scarcely 
a bud of promise, or leaf of life, — a mere spiritual 
willow sprig, — yet, being nurtured by divine grace, 
his little, isolated branch-existence soon takes root 
for itself, and becomes an individual life — a real 
identity, rising and perfecting in manhood, or 
womanhood ; and thenceforward related to com- 
munity as a producer of thought and performer of 
work, rather than as a mere out-pushing, bough- 
wise, of a family prestige. 

The religion of Christ develops men as distinct 
originals ; and every true believer so receives the 
Spirit of Truth as to best direct and use his talent, 
his time, and his opportunities in doing good. 
And this makes religious dut}^ constant pleasure; 
and, working, the Christian rapidl} 7 strengthens in 
his graces and powers, and springs up into large 
and symmetrical life, as a willow by the water 
courses. 



The Willow. 



127 



llow soon, when the spirit of Jesus controls the 
heart, does the disciple forget the trifling amuse- 
ments and idol worships of the world ; and, in the 
new relation, constantly sustained by the divine 
Presence, how quickly he enlarges in affection, in 
charity, in benevolence, and in all the amiabilities 
of a living faitli ! When trie breathings of the 
Spirit enter the interiors of the soul, telling of the 
better joys of the kingdom of God, Fashion, and 
Mammon, and Sect, are banished in an hour, and 
Christ takes room ! 

In times of revival in the church, how often do 
new converts, whose gifts had thitherto been un- 
known or buried, suddenly stand up and speak for 
the Master ! The heart cleansed from sin by the 
blood of Christ, the intellect illuminated by the 
Hoty Spirit, no wonder that there should be a 
marvelous change in the life and language of the 
sinner saved by grace ! He rises as a new creature, 
breathing a new atmosphere, — as if indeed the 
winter were over and gone, and the eternal summer 
had come ; he rises from the cramp stiffness of old 
habits, from the stagnant level of selfishness, car- 
nality and sin, and, by the grace of God, he springs 
forth as a willow by the water courses, beautiful in 



128 The Gospel in the Trees. 



outer life, and full of peace and glory ! Praise the 
Lord ! 

But these words are more especially spoken of 
the young, who are trained in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord. By proper home instruc- 
tion of children from their infancy to love the 
truths of the Bible, — to respect the sanctuary, the 
Sabbath, and the sacred ordinances, — to be infused 
in childhood with the spirit of Christ, and kept 
ever on the margin of that river which makes glad 
the Church and City of God ; — this is to see them 
spring forth in the graces of religion as flowers 
among the grass, and as willows by the water 
courses. 

Parents, the little willow boughs are in your 
keeping. Have you planted them by the river side? 
Or are they neglected, and wilting and warping, 
lying prostrate beneath the scorching sun, in 
clanger every day of that deadness which not even 
the Holy Spirit may start into everlasting life ? 
Plant them, before they be gathered as branches 
for burning ! Pray and sing and talk with your 
children, and watch them taking root as young 
willows along the heavenly river-banks, that they 
may grow forever ! Then, although the Hebrew 



The Willow. 



129 



captives of old hung their harps upon the willows, 
and wept by strange Euphrates' shore, you shall 
stand free and redeemed among more beautiful 
willows at home, and sing, in chorus with your dear 
ones all, the songs of Zion, again and again ; and, at 
last, renew the music, without a missing voice, and 
with golden harps to glorify the sound, beside the 
River of Life in Heaven ! 

0, this healing river of redemption! From its 
Heavenly fountain, how grandly it rolls down the 
world ! How the immortal willows are springing 
up along its sunny shores ! 

In this land of light and freedom, you are stand- 
ing, not by a mournful Euphrates, but on the 
margin of this glad river of salvation. It flows 
sparkling at your feet. Stoop down and drink, 
and live forever. 

Here, 

"Your harp?, ye trembling saints, 
Down from the willows take, 
Loud to the praise of Love divine 
Bid every string awake." 

You are captives no more, oh ye redeemed 
children of God. Take down your harps ! Key 
high the chords! Send the invitation, as a song 
of pardoning, emancipating love, from heart to 



130 . The Gospel in the Trees. 

heart — from home to home ! Send the glad tidings 
as music in circling echoes around and around 
the world, to every sad Babylonian plain, to every 
mourning captive, until the remotest soul shall hear, 
and awake, and drink, and live, and ioin the song. 
Take down your harps. Take up the music. Sing 
and rejoice until the angels meet you shouting on 
the river shore ! 

Then, when the judgment flames have licked up 
our beautiful rivers and the old rivers of Babylon, 
and the great oceans between ; when weeping 
willows rustle over closing graves no more ; when 
the last tomb-door is opened by the power of the 
resurrection ; and when the sun itself is vailed in 
the smoke of a burning world ; then away — away, 
in the vales of Paradise regained, the River of Life 
shall flow on forever and forever, widening and 
sparkling — no harp upon, nor grave beneath, any 
willow of its shore ; no captive sitting and weeping 
upon any of its verdant banks ; but the dead alive ; 
the long lost found ; the aged young again ; 
sundered dear ones met ; all harps in tune ; and the 
new song begun, and every soul eternally happy 
and free ! 



THE PALM TREE. 



THE PALM TREE. 

The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. 

Ps. xcii. 12. 

TJiey took branches of palm trees, and went foHh (a 
meet him, and cried, Hosanna, Blessed is he that 
Cometh in the name of the Lord. John xii. 13. 

A great multitude stood before the throne, and before 
the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and with palms 
in their hands. Rev. vii. 9. 

MONG the Bible trees there is no one more 
prominent or significant than the palm 
tree. It is first mentioned on the sacred 
pages in the account of Israel's escape from Egyp- 
tian bondage, when its branches were taken, with 
the boughs of thick trees and willows from the 
brook, and woven together as a nightly covert or 
tabernacle within whose protection the freed pil- 
grims, resting on their journe3 r to the promised 
land, rejoiced before the Lord. 

The last reference to the palm is by St. John, in 
the book of Revelation, when he beheld the ran- 
somed multitude, clothed with white robes, and 

waving palm branches of victory in the heavenly 
133 




134 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



Canaan above. A token of joy when the Israelite 
begins his march through the wilderness, the palm 
branch is seen at last in the hand of the Christian 
as he stands crowned and exultant by the River of 
Life. Of no other tree can it be said, that, after 
serving its purpose on earth, it is named and hon- 
ored in heaven as a gift to redeemed immortals, 
bestowed by the same Hand which confers the robe, 
the crown, and the harp of the blest. And of all 
the intermediate references to the palm tree, from 
the beginning of the Old Testament to the close of 
the New, the casual mention of its branches having 
been waved along the Saviour's pathway as he rode 
into Jerusalem, amidst the clapping hosannas of 
the people, has the greatest significance. For here 
the enlightened eye is lifted from the thronging 
crowd, the judgment hall of Pilate, the cross of 
Calvary, and the tomb of Joseph, to the streets of 
the New Jerusalem, the throne of the King of kings, 
and the welcoming applauses of saints and angels 
when the everlasting doors are opened, and the 
Lord of glory returns. 

No wonder that this tree, so tall, so stately, and 
so fruitful, should have been selected by the Psalm- 
ist as an emblem of the righteous ! In all ages, the 



The Palm. 



185 



palm tree has been the poet's theme, the artist's 
delight, and the traveler's joy. The Hindoo scholar, 
Amarasinga, long before the Christian era, crowned 
the palm tree "king among the grasses." In later 
days, and in enlightened lands, the honor has been 
confirmed by all, who, in the words of Lenseus, 
agree in proclaiming the palm the "prince of 
vegetation." It is indeed a royal tree. Strong, 
majestic, unchangeable, rich in inexhaustible treas- 
ure, and wearing a coronal of fadeless beauty, its 
claim is conceded by the world. 

The Greeks gave to the palm the name of their 
fabled bird with ruby breast and golden plumage, 
the Phoenix, which, when destroyed, arose again 
in broader strength and more brilliant life; for 
when the tree was consumed by fire, it literally 
fulfilled the marvel of springing up young and 
beautiful from the ashes of its ruin. 

The Egyptians associated the palm with their 
sacred flower, the Lotus, an emblem of immortality. 
Even to this day, it is the custom of the women of 
that ancient land, to break palm branches over the 
graves of loved ones, and to strew the leafy frag- 
ments about the tombs. In Cairo, every Friday, 
branches of the palm tree are conveyed by devout 



136 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



Arabs, and, with solemn religious ceremony, laid 
upon the graves of relatives and friends who sleep 
in the dust. 

The early Christians read, in the upright, uprising 
palm tree, the truth, vividly emblemized, of "the 
victory that overcometh the world." When a saint 
suffered martyrdom, exultingly dying in the faith, 
he was said to have "won the palm." The same 
thought, by association, comes clown to our own 
time in such expressions as "bearing the palm," 
and "in his palmy days." The resurrection, also, 
was typified to our primitive fathers by this appa- 
rently never-dying tree ; and in holy faith a branch 
of its evergreen was laid over the heart of every 
one who died in the Lord, and was buried with the 
body, as a pledge of rising again and living forever. 

The palm tree in its uses, — furnishing, through its 
different varieties, to the inhabitants of the coun- 
tries where it grows, fruit, bread, wine, milk, honey, 
sugar and oil ; wax, ivory, paper, cups, salt, vine- 
gar, and medicine ; fibers to be woven into cloth ; 
cradles for infants, and coffins for the dead, — stands 
pre-eminently the friend of man and the servant of 
God. There are, it is said, about six hundred 
varieties of the palm tree, and wherever it flour- 



The Palm. 



137 



ishes, it is a minister of good. As a tree of the 
desert oasis, of the tangled forest, of the coral 
islands of the sea, or of the slopes of the mountain, 
— a bearer of food, of clothing, of shade, or of 
medicine, — the palm is an emblem of the true, the 
beautiful, the grand, and the glorious in the lives of 
men. 

In the Song of Solomon, Christ is represented as 
addressing his Bride, the church, in the words, 
" This thy stature is like to a palm tree," recogniz- 
ing in this tribute of admiration, her strength and 
majesty when looked upon in her complete propor- 
tions. Holiness in individual Christians becomes 
a beauty which adorns the whole church with grace 
and glory, and Jesus' is delighted in viewing the 
unifold possession of it by his people ; and ex- 
claims, as if addressing his beloved One, 11 How fair 
and how pleasant art thou!" 

1. The Palm Tree is Straight and Uprising in 
Stature. Palms are exceedingly tender when } r oung, 
and it is common for culturers to plant several of 
them together, so that, rising, they may strengthen 
each other by interlocking their boughs, and thus 
grow up mutually supported, until they become tall 
and strong trees, when some of them may be re- 



138 



The Gospel in the Trees, 



moved to make room for the maturer development 
of the remaining ones. In wild forest plains, also, 
young palm trees arise in groups. 

Firmly rooted, the palm holds fast its place in 
every soil, whether it be in shifting sands, on the 
arid rock, along the cliff-side of the mountain, or 
down in the timbered vallej^s fertile ground. It 
rises tall and straight in its trunk, branching near 
the top in a crown-like cluster of boughs, covered 
with dark green glossy leaves, growing on long and 
slender stalks, and curving gracefully outward and 
downward until the feathery tips of its pendent 
foliage are swayed like tresses of hair in the breeze. 
There are no branches starting out irregularly from 
the sides of this towering tree ; but all its verdure 
is made to unfold high up toward the sunlight of 
heaven ; and of all green things that grow, the 
palm-leaves are first to meet the refreshing dews 
and rains as they fall. 

The palm tree becomes vigorous in proportion to 
the pressure it has to resist ; and no matter what 
obstruction of the forest may fall upon it, it can 
never be warped out of its upright course, but will 
rise against and through all barriers, straight and 
true to its nature as the princely palm, worthy of 



The Palm. 



139 



its crown of evergreen above the swinging tops of 
all other trees. The Greeks chose the palm as a 
type of the true athlete, one never to be overcome 
or cast down ; and for the significance of this virtue, 
the sculptured columns of ancient temples were fre- 
quently ornamented with representations of the 
palm tree. 

So the Christian rises. When young, he is tender 
and timid, and if left alone, might easily be crushed. 
But the Heavenly Culturer has provided for the 
care of the young convert by instituting the church 
and its associations. How often do we see a com- 
pany of young people influenced by the Holy Spirit 
at once, and simultaneously springing up to life in 
Christ ! They are planted near together, as young 
palm trees, so that, by sympathizing word, by arm- 
entertwining confidence and help, they may mutually 
strengthen each other as they grow in grace and in 
the knowledge of the Lord. And as they become 
rooted and grounded in love, and confirmed in 
habits of holiness, and in the experiences of true 
religion, they receive the strength to rise against 
oppositions ; until, by the grace of God, every 
disappointment, every sorrow, every persecution, 
instead of being a hindrance to the development 



140 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



of the Christian, becomes the occasion of more 
compact, decided growth, and the necessary dis- 
cipline by which to overcome the temptations of the 
world. 

The righteous man tends upward eternally. His 
heart is set on those things which are above. He 
rises steadily, surely, omnipotently in Christ Jesus, 
who is his life, every day acquiring symmetry and 
majesty and power and beauty in the Lord. As the 
palm tree rises to wear its coronal of evergreen high 
over surrounding trees when their boughs are naked 
in the winter storm, so the Christian rises to wear 
his crown of everlasting life when the great throng 
of summer-foliaged moralists are stripped and 
shivering before the judgment ! 

The Christian, with his affections fixed on eternal 
things, can not be crushed. The more the world 
piles weights upon him, the more stoutly and 
perpendicularly does he grow. He may be criticised, 
censured, burlesqued, abused ; but, no matter, — he 
grows right up through all triumphantly, the 
stronger, the taller, and the more beautiful. He 
can not be kept under. Earth has no power to 
divert, nor hell to subdue, his consecrated spirit. 
Because Christ is risen, he seeks those things 



The Palm. 



Ill 



which are above. He must rise, growing and glow- 
ing in health and glory, over all oppositions. 

"But he, who lets his feelings run 

In soft luxurious flow, 
Shrinks when hard service must be done, 

And faints at every woe. 
Faith's meanest deed more favor bears, 

Where hearts and wills are weighed, 
Than brightest transports, choicest prayers, 

Which bloom their hour, and fade." 

Do I address any young disciples whom the 
world is watching with jealous eye ? Yes : and no 
doubt you have felt the pressure put against you 
to prevent your spiritual advancement. Some of 
3 r ou may have been checked and stunted in your 
growth by such rubbish as the opera, the dance, 
the theater ; others by mammon weights ; others 
by the mere chaff of fashion drifting across } r ou ; 
and not having the life of Christ hid deep in your 
hearts, and doubting away the proffered helps of the 
Spirit, you are about to be overgrown by the rank 
weeds of the world and buried in the darks of for- 
gottenness forever. 0, be brave ! If an inanimate 
palm tree, amid the tanglings of the forest, pushes 
aside the material weights that would interrupt 
its rise into the free sunshine above deciduous 
leaves, if it outgrows the trees that would hide its 



142 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



ro3 T al diadem, be you brave in the strength of 
Jesus Christ, immortal men and women, and 
rise by faith and love through all temptations and 
troubles to a range high over the shadows of 
sense and passion, into the light which never 
darkens, and receive the crown that never fades 
away ! 

"How are we living? 
Like herbs in a garden that stand in a row, 
And have nothing to do but to stand there and grow ? 

Our powers of perceiving 

So dull and so dead, 
They simply extend to the objects about us,— 
The moth, having all his dark pleasure without us, — 

The worm in his bed ! 

" If thus we are living, 
And fading, and falling, and rotting, alas ! — 
Like the grass, or the flowers that grow in the grass,— 

Is life worth our having ? 

The insect %,-humming, — 
The wild bird is oetter, that sings as it flies, — 
The ox, that turns up his great face to the skies, 

When the thunder is coming. 

" Where are we living ? 
In passion, and pain, and remorse do we dwell, — 
Creating, yet terribly hating, our hell? 

No triumph achieving ? 

No grossness refining ? 
The palm tree does more ; for his coat of rough barks 
He trims with green mosses, and checks with the marks 

Of the long summer shining. 



The Palm. 



143 



"We're dying, not living : 
Our senses shut up, and our hearts faint and cold; 
Upholding old things just because they are old ; 

Our good spirits grieving, 

We suffer our springs 
Of promise to pass without sowing the land, 
And hungry and sad in the harvest-time stand 

Expecting good things !'** 

St. Paul, in referring to Christian training, says 
that "tribulation worketh patience; and patience, 
experience, and experience, hope "for," he adds, 
'I reckon that the sufferings of this present time 
are not worthy to be compared with the glory 
which shall be revealed in us." 

Another lesson is here : As the palm tree, 
(unlike the banyan which turns its' boughs to the 
ground again, and grows downward and spreads 
and fastens itself by a hundred ties to the earth,) 
puts out no lateral branch below its crownly top, 
but uses all its sap to roundly develop that into 
foliage and fruit, — so is the true Christian's life- 
energy single and concentrate. There is no com- 
promise with sin. There is no bending to the 
world. There is no connivance at hypocrisy. 
There is no branching out as a mere fashionist, or 
sectarian, or politician — no wasting of substance 



* Alice Gary. 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



in vain speculations. There is a definite object in 
view — the attainment of holiness and heaven ; and 
every thought strikes up in that direction ; and 
every prompting of the Spirit being for the accom- 
plishment of that exalted purpose, every word is 
sincere, and every action honest. There is an 
uprightness in the Christian character which no 
words so well express as yea and amen/ 

The church to-day suffers in symmetry, and is 
deficient in power, because so many of her professed 
members are undecided in life. There are doubt- 
ing disciples, as distorted and unsightly in charac- 
ter, as a palm tree would be with the monstrosit}' 
of irregular lateral branches drooping to the earth 
and dragging in the dust. And whenever these 
world-hearted people stand in the church, growing 
sidewise and crooked and knotted by the un- 
wholesome stimulants of passion and pride, — no 
wonder that they should be as sickly in soul as 
they are dwarfed in stature. For all of love that 
the world draws aside and perverts, is utterly lost 
from the heart ; and even should these alien growths 
be trimmed away at last, the scars will remain to 
mar the form, and to excite sad memories always. 

The wax palm of the Ancles, encrusted with a 



The Palm. 



145 



singular substance which it exhales through the 
bark, has a loft}' and even trunk, straight and 
white as a column of marble. Its top is star-like in 
form, coronated with bright, unfading green ; while 
the under surfaces of its leaves are tinted in silvery 
beauty. It is seen from a great distance, and, as 
the sunbeams glitter upon its snow-white form and 
its diadem of emerald, it is a marvel of grandeur 
and brilliance. 

What an emblem of the true Christian, standing 
on the mountains of sin, clothed in the white robe 
of the Saviour's righteousness, crowned with fade- 
less royalty, unshaken by persecutions, a faithful 
witness of the truth, with the heavenly sunshine 
dazzling in glory from his brow, seen from afar, 
and known and honored b}^ angels and men ! 

To spring upward, bearing the greatest beauty 
of foliage, the richest burden of fruit, and the 
amplest breadth of power toward the skies, is the 
one aim of the palm tree's life — the only impulse 
of its being. And so does the Christian — the 
purest, comeliest, kingliest creature beneath the 
sun — spring upward toward heaven, white and radi- 
ant in the spotless robe of Jesus ; with a heart full 
of praise and honor and blessing and power, all to 



146 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



be cast at the blessed Redeemer's feet in the crown- 
land of heaven ! 

Who would not forego the sinful pleasures of the 
world and the ephemeral praises of men, and use 
all events of life, joyful and grievous, as helpy in 
rising to the high, full, magnificent stature of men 
and women in Christ Jesus ? " The righteous shall 
flourish like the palm tree" — quietly, patiently, 
constantly, triumphantly ! The Christian rises 
higher in grace and glory as the summers and win- 
ters are added to his life, improving the changes of 
time and circumstance, like the palm tree, which, 
with the circling of the seasons, adds rings of 
wooded growth to its trunk, becoming more firm 
and fruitful with age. Worldly men may rise more 
rapidly to distinction in the sphere of commerce, 
politics, literature, art, or science ; but the Chris- 
tian grows and gains character for eternity. The 
blessed expeiiences of his life of faith on earth 
shall be part of his immortality in heaven. 

There is a fable of a gourd which climbed the tall 
stem of the palm tree, and having reached the sum- 
mit, mockingly questioned the royal tree : — 

" How long have you been in reaching this 
height?" 



The Palm. 



147 



"A hundred years," replied the palm. 

" What think you then of me?" said the gourd; 
"in a few days I have reached the same height 
which you have required so many years to attain V 

"I think nothing of that," responded the palm, 
" for every year of my life, I have seen a gourd 
wind itself about my trunk, as proud and as self- 
confident as thou art, and as short-lived as thou 
wilt be." 

You can not bend the Eastern palm j — 

With binding force unriven, 
It springs, elastic, from the ground, 

In the pure air of Heaven. 
It lifts its undishonored brow, 

With fadeless verdure crested : 
It will not cleave unto the dust, 

Where once its shade had rested. 
And Eastern sous their towering palms, 

A li :ing wealth inherit ! 
Our fathers left us one, alone, — 

The Palm Tree of the Spirit! 

The innate freedom of the soul, 

Above Earth's clinquant praises, 
Above its low, polluting fears, 

Its lordly brow upraises. 
It will not stoop to prospered wrong ; 

It will not yield to sorrow : 
It will not bend the low applause 

Of sordid minds to borrow. 
The world may smile on painted Fraud, 

And Honor laugh at Merit, 
But adverse Fate can never bow 

The Palm Tree of the Spirit ! 



U8 The Gospel in the Trees. 

It springs beside the northern pine, 

Amid the southern roses, 
And where the shadow of the cloudi 

On prairie grass reposes. 
Wl.erever, bright and undefiled, 

The fount of truth is flowing, 
Wherever beats an honest heart, 

You find it proudly growing! 
Let Fortune's sons Fame's laurel wreath, 

Earth's glittering wealth inherit ; 
The humblest soul is rich, that owns 

The Palm Tree of the Spirit!* 

2. TJie Palm Tree is Abundantly Fruitful. It 
has not only a stately trunk and crownly foliage 
of evergreen ; but it supplies ample food to the 
inhabitants of the countries where it flourishes. It 
begins to yield fruit when four or five years old, 
and continues to bear richly for more than a 
century. This is a conspicuous property of all 
varieties of palms. Twelve thousand blossoms 
have been counted on a single spathe of the date 
palm. The Hindoo tala, a species of palm tree, is 
the chief support of millions of people. The sago 
palms, or moluccas, of Polynesia, furnish the staff 
of life to the countless multitudes of souls on that 
island-world of the distant sea. In South America, 
the palm is equally prolific, the greater part of the 



* Marian Douglass, in Our Schoolday Visitor, vol. xii. p. 320. 



The Palm. 



population of the wild interiors of that continent 
depending on its varied products for sustenance 
and comfort. There is no other tree which yields 
such a profusion of fruit, and such a diversity of 
essentials to the human family. 

The Christian is known by his fruits. It is not 
enough to have the name written on the church 
register, and a symmetry of formal service ; to pro- 
nounce the phrases of orthodoxy, to sing, to pray, 
and to contribute to the support of the gospel in a 
general wa}^. There is something better than 
stateliness and respectability in the Christian 
character. And that something better is just what 
the world needs, and waits to see and taste. There 
must be the fruits of the Spirit ; and of these even 
the thoughts of childhood are buds and blossoms, 
for they form and grow and ripen early, like the 
fruit of the palm tree ; and, as the maturer years 
enlarge the faculties and affections of life, the 
wealth of fruitage increases more and more'; and 
no Christian ever becomes too old to bear fruit to 
the honor and glory of God. 

The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, 
temperance. The Saviour himself says, that, 



150 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



"every branch in Hie that beareth not fruit, he (the 
Divine Husbandman), taketh away: and every 
branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it 

may bring forth more fruit He that 

abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth 

forth much fruit Herein is my Father 

glorified, that ye bear much fruity 

Paul, addressing the Colossians, and speaking 
of the gospel heard and believed, says that it 
"bringeth forth fruit." 

From the teaching of the Saviour and his apos- 
tles, we see that unless there be these fruits of the 
Spirit clustered to prominence, and ripening daily 
in the disciple's life, there is no attachment to 
Christ. And when there is no attachment to Him, 
the branches must wither, and be gathered, and 
burnt. King David compares the righteous to the 
fruitful palm tree; and King David's greater Son 
teaches that the prosperity of a disciple shall be 
measured, not by the mere foliage of promise, or 
symmetry of doctrine ; but by the bearing of 
spiritual fruit. 

Every professor must be a performer. Every 
believer must be a talker and a worker, that faith 
may have wholesome exercise and grow. There 



The Palm. 



151 



are good works to be done so outwardly and so 
commonly that sinners may see them without 
microscopes or money, — and seeing, shall compre- 
hend them from motive out to result — from blos- 
som to sweet maturity — as sound, legitimate pro- 
ductions of Christian life, and be so led to glorify 
God. No work should be done to elicit self-praise 
or sect-eulogy ; but only and always to bring glory 
to God. No denominational statistics should for 
a moment prompt an effort to increase the figures 
for figures' sake. No individual church should 
take credit for soul-saving, because of its peculiar 
forms or superior methods ; for " not by might, nor 
by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." No 
minister should indulge the imagination that he is 
commissioned with any papal or lordly power in 
the heritage of saints, or assume the prerogative 
of monopolizing territory, and commanding laborers 
to work by line and letter in winning men. The 
world reads no sign more readily than the " We, 
XJs and Company" of clerical Christendom ! All 
these assumptions and presumptions, both in indi- 
vidual disciples and in organized societies, are 
superfluous leaves, absorbing vitality which God 
intended to go into fruits, such as meekness, 



152 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



charily,, forbearance, and brotherly kindness. Un- 
less a Christian prune these tendencies away from 
his heart by prayer — unless a church engage the 
vigilance of all its pious people, ordained and un- 
ordained, it will speedily cover itself with rankling, 
rustling leaves in glorification of self, and have no 
place for a single specimen of fruit which hungering 
souls may see, and seeing, taste, and tasting, be 
led to glorify their Father and our Father who is 
in heaven. 

How many Christians there are, like the barren 
fig tree, producing nothing but leaves ! They 
stand and spread a magnificent show of foliage in 
the form of promising words, summer-shine de- 
votions, and all that ; but when the Saviour comes 
along hungry for fruit, and expectant, he finds not 
a taste on all the leafy boughs. And if he cursed 
a fruitless wayside tree to perpetual barrenness, 
will he excuse the cultured disciple, claiming his 
name,, professing his grace, and standing in his 
church, if there be no fruits of the Spirit in all such 
rustling life ? Like the palm tree which draws 
blossoms out of frost, and sweetness out of desert 
dust, and gathers strength to bear its burdens hy 
wrestling with the storm, the Christian draws hope 



The Palm. 



153 



from disappointments, grace from worldly work, and 
acquires strength as a constant and abundant 
bearer of fruit by grappling with oppositions. 

There is a wild species of this tree, in some 
countries called the " tocldy-palm ;" and many of 
the people where it grows are said to be sad drunk- 
ards, for the draughts from this aerial cellar are 
stealthily procured. The toddy-drinker climbs the 
tree to the soft fronds, which have been tied to- 
gether to prevent the development of blossoms, and 
makes a notch in the trunk, close under the tufted 
leaves. The juice issuing from the puncture is 
conducted by means of a small funnel made of palm 
leaf, to a vessel suspended below to receive it. The 
liquid soon ferments, and the ingenious tipplers of 
the forest become intoxicated. Of course the opera- 
tion of toddy-drawing spoils the fruit, and destroys 
the tree. The palm trunk is made zig-zag, scarred, 
and crooked from the practice of annually tapping 
the alternate sides for toddy. 

Xo wonder that such mischievous conduct should 
ruin the upright stature' of the tree. Striking 
analogy, here ! for indulgence in drunkenness always 
leads to the loss of the upright stature and dignity 
of the man. You smile at the habit of the barbarian 



154 The Gospel in the Trees. 



toddy-climber. It is far less ludicrous than the 
distilling processes of Christendom, where enlight 
ened men take God's wheat and corn, which grow for 
bread, and make them rotten by method and ma- 
chinery, turning all their purity and sweetness into 
poisonous stimulants to destroy the bodies and 
souls of the people. Such business becomes too 
awfully serious in its tendencies to pass unrebuked. 
Oh, the zig-zag, crooked, broken-bodied men and 
women, the result of this unrighteous traffic ! May 
the day speedily dawn wdien all the ransomed 
church shall bear, not only abundant, but mature 
and perfect fruit, unembittered by tears and un- 
spotted by blood — the precious fruit of good will 
and good works to men, and glory and honor and 
thanksgiving to God ! 

3. The Palm Branch is an Emblem of Victory. 
The Romans, after conquering Judea, chose the 
figure of a captive woman seated under a palm tree 
as the device for their coins and banners. They 
were unaware of the deep significance of the 
design.* But throughout the heathen, as well as 
the Christian world, for ages immemorial, the 



* Judges iv. 5, 6. 



The Palm. 



155 



palm branch has been the acknowledged emblem of 
victory. 

As the dove, a-wing with an olive branch in its 
mouth, is the universal token of peace, — and the 
weeping willow is the type of sorrow wherever 
graves are known ; so the palm branch is here, and 
shall be hereafter, for the conqueror's hand. From 
the day the pilgrims to Canaan, with waving palms, 
rejoiced in the delivering power of God, — through 
the conflicts and triumphs of all lands and ages till 
time shall end, — and on the Heavenly Canaan- 
ground pressed by the feet of redeemed immortals, 
the palm has been, and shall be forever more, the 
victor's pledge of a power that overcometh. 

When the Saviour rides into Jerusalem from 
Olivet, the people hail him with hosannas, strew 
their garments at his feet, and wave palms of 
applauding welcome along his path. But this 
uplifted homage, transient as it is sudden, only 
marks the way to the uplifted cross. He is greeted 
as King of Israel ; but not as King of kings. His 
triumph is great, but not complete. These shouts 
of popular tribute shall cease with the hour; the 
morrow's sun shall find these gay palm branches 
wilting in the dust. For Jesus passes on through 



15G 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



all this turbulent adoration to sad Gethsemane, — 
on to the judgment seat of Pilate, — on over the 
scattered garments of the people's praise, to wear 
the cast-off purple robe and crown of thorns ; on 
to Calvary and the cross. The rejected Saviour 
is nailed to the wood, and groans, and bleeds, and 
dies. The earth is dark at noon. The vail of the 
temple is rent in twain from top to bottom by a 
descending power which cleaves the rocks asunder 
and opens the graves of the dead ! 

The Crucified is taken down from the cross. The 
inscription on the wood — the letters all stained 
with blood — remains legible in the strange twilight, 
" Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." The 
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words all spotted with 
blood! The world is still. The new sepulcher 
receives the body of the Lord. The hopes of the 
disciples seem buried with Jesus. The bewildered 
friends go down to their homes, silent, forlorn, and 
desolate. The Master is dead. Oh, why did the 
noisy people wave palm branches in the street, 
and so soon drive nails and thrust spears on the 
hill ! Has the world the victory at last, because 
the palm branches have fallen and faded away ? 

Two strangely tedious days pass "by. The 



The Palm. 



157 



trampled grass on Calvary begins to rise from 
the pressure of unhallowed feet. The fresh ground 
at the foot of the cross is yet moist and purple with 
the life-blood of Jesus. But he lies cold in Joseph's 
tomb. Oh, why did palm branches wave him King 
of Israel, when so soon the King of Terrors should 
hold dominion over him ! 

Brethren, that was not Roman power, but 
Omnipotent power, displayed on Calvary, that day ! 
It was not Roman justice, but Divine justice that 
was satisfied! 

For, the third day, the Redeemer rose triumphant 
from the grave, and all heaven echoed with hallelu- 
jahs of victory ! He was King, and is King for- 
ever — King of Life ; for he conquered the last 
Enemy down in his own dark dominion, and arose 
a Victor for all who sleep in the grave. Hosanna! 
Blessed be the King of Israel, and of all Gentile 
nations also, who cometh in the name of the Lord ! 

Now the scattered disciples assemble again, 
timid and afraid no longer ; but bold and irrepres- 
sible, they preach Jesus and the resurrection. 
Now they comprehend the meaning of the Master's 
words, when he said, " It is expedient that I should 
go away, and send another Comforter." In the 



158 The Gospel in the Trees. 



flesh Jesus was a weary itinerant of Palestine ; 
but the promised Comforter is omnipresent. Our 

Lord^s visible form did not give his disciples 
the courage to watch with him one hour; but his 

COMFORTING SPIRIT HAS MADE MANY A CHRISTIAN 
WELCOME THE MARTYR'S STAKE, AND SING HOSANNAS 
IN THE FLAMES IN HONOR OF HIS NAME ! 

Dear friends, it is better to live to-day, and to 
have the influence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, 
than to have walked hand-in-hand with Christ 
along the vales of Galilee, or to have waved a 
palm, and shouted a hosanna as he entered the old 
Jerusalem long ago ; for now is he the risen Victor 
over death, hell and the grave, and the prevailing 
Intercessor with the Father ; and now is the day 
of the free Spirit of salvation to every believer, 
wherever he may be, and whatever his condition, or 
nation, or nature, or name. 

Let the palm branches wave again and again in 
the hands of all pilgrims below, and forever and 
ever in the hands of the white-robed millions above ! 
Henceforth the way to heaven is a King's highway 
of holiness. " The unclean shall not pass over it ; 
but it shall be for those : the wayfaring men, though 
fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, 



The Palm. 



159 



nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon ; but 
the redeemed shall walk there : And the ransomed 
of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with 
songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they 
shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and 
sighing shall flee away." 

dear ones departed, though we can not see 
your faces now, nor hear your voices, we love you 
still. Never mind our trials and tears. Wave 
your palms. Strike your harps. We are coming. 
Your heaven is our home. We are rising through 
tribulations gladly, for the sake of the white robes. 
We are bearing our crosses patiently, for the sake 
of the crowns. We are willing to be lonely in 
the world a little longer, for the sake of your 
celestial company by-and-by and forever. Wave, 
wave your fadeless palms in victory for us ; 
though "it does not yet appear what we shall be, 
but we know that when He who redeemed us shall 
appear, we shall be like Him ; for we shall see 
Him as He is I" 

" Palms of glory, raiment white, 
Crowns which never fade away, 
Gird and deck the saints in light; 

Priests, and kings, and conquerors they. 



160 



The Gospel in the Trees. 



Yet the conquerors bring their palms 
To the Lamb amidst the throne, 

And proclaim in joyful psalms, 
Victory through his cross alono V* 




RAIN. 



Pkrt II. 

COMMON THINGS. 



i. 

THE RAIN. 

For as the rain cometh down .... f mm 
heaven and returneth not thither, but water eth the 
earth and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may 
give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. 

So shall my ivord be that goeth forth out of my 
mouth : it shall not return unto me void, but it shall 
accomplish that which I please, and it sliall prosper 
in the thing whereto T sent it. Isaiah lv. 10, 11. 

HE ocean, boundless and unfailing, is the 
fountain of all rains. Salt, stormy and 
treacherous, yet it is of vaster value to 
men than if its channels were filled with ingots of 
gold. Foaming and restless forever, yet it is a far 
more faithful friend and benefactor than any of the 
solid materialities of the earth. It is the inexhaust- 
ible storehouse of man's nourishment. It regu- 
lates the temperature of all lands. It rolls its 
billows day and night to cool, to warm, to purify 
and fructify the dusty ground on which we dwell. 

Our bread comes up out of the sea. Our clothes 
163 




164 



Common Things. 



come up out of the sea. Our fruits grow and ripen 
from a power sent up out of the sea. God's com- 
missioned minister to man it is, anticipating and 
meeting the wants of a living world. 

What an interesting study is the formation of a 
rain-cloud ! Without any visible pillars of support, 
it rests in grandeur across the sky, dense and 
heavy with a reservoir of water lifted from the sea. 
In due time, the wisdom of God broadcasts the 
showers so gently and refreshingly as to receive a 
welcome from the tenderest grass and tiniest 
flower far below. There is never an accident in the 
economy of nature that tears a cloud asunder, and 
empties its fullness down in cataracts to drown 
and to destroy. 

0, the blessed water ! It smiles in its mountain 
sources ; it chatters and prattles in the little brooks ; 
it laughs out loud and heartily in river rapids ; it 
sings its diapasons in the sea. Thence it ascends 
the heavens again, purified and glorified, to accept 
new errands of blessing to the ever-craving earth. 
This self-regulating process of evaporation and 
condensation has existed from the creation of the 
world. The earth's life, unlike that of animals, is 
continued by aerial instead of arterial circulation. 



The Rain. 



165 



The vital currents are without. The sun exhales 
the vapor from the earth; the atmosphere receives 
and sustains it ; the clouds become the sailing ves- 
sels of transportation, and it is distributed by them 
in a manner exactly suited to the irrigation of the 
soil and the nurturing of vegetation. Thus the 
whole earth is perpetually refreshed, and enabled to 
sustain its myriad growths. The fountains are fed 
out of heaven ; the brooks and rivers are replen- 
ished ; and the ground of all continents is made 
ready for the hand of the farmer. By this simple 
process of making rain, and sending it free and 
widecast over the earth, God performs a work 
which underlies all possibilities for bread and drink 
and very life. He provides the seed for the sower, 
prepares the ground upon which it rests and takes 
root, and prepares the agencies by which it swells, 
and springs, and grows, and blossoms, and matures, 
and whitens into bread. Unless the Omnipotent 
Hand were opened day and night, and all the year, 
the methods of men would be useless and vain. 

How bountiful and yet how precious is the 
water ! Think of the weary soldier — your brother 
■ — crossing plains, climbing mountains, beneath a 
sweltering sun, until fatigue fevers his blood, and 



166 Common Things. 

dries his flesh, marching on to meet a battle, and to 
bear his part in the fearful carnage, until, at last, 
unable to stand, he falls down beside what was 
always a cool meadow brook, but is now a crimson 
stream, red with human gore, and there in his 
greedy thirst to drink and drink of that ! How 
would the famishing soldier seize a cup of cold 
water, bright, sparkling water, such as he has 
often dreamed of, poor fellow — only dreamed of — 
gurgling from the orchard-spring at home! 

Were you ever in the country in a time of 
drought, when wells were empty and springs were 
dry ; w 7 hen the heavens seemed as brass ; when the 
blades and leaves w T ere curled and crisped in the 
sun ; when the soil was scorched to a crust of 
ashes ; when the cattle went down instinctively to 
the valleys and pawed among the hot pebbles for 
drink ; wiien every plant and shrub, with bowed 
head, seemed pleading and waiting for rain ? And 
did you watch the distant cloud arise, the size of a 
man's hand? Did you see it spreading and en- 
larging and darkening and coming at God's com- 
mand, until it shadowed the whole half circle of 
your horizon ; and did you listen to the solo-prelude 
of the music singing in the leaves, and then dash- 



The Rain. 



167 



ing in full glad chorus all around ? How the 
crystal currents cooled the air ! What a clapping 
of hands for very joy among the trees ! What a 
rich baptism from the rainbowed fountains of the 
Lord! The upturned cups of the garden flowers 
were filled to bubbling over. The pebbly-bottomed 
bowl of the brooks was surged with swimming 
water. The drooping plants lifted up their heads, 
for in bowing they had received each one a jeweled 
crown, and rejoiced and waved their shining spears 
in homage to the rain. The orchards and fields 
revived and smiled as the balmy incense of heaven 
was shed in fragrance and freshness through all 
the summer air. Blessed rain-drops, lifted by the 
hand of Omnipotence from the sea, borne landward 
by his breath, held hovering over the dusty soil for 
an hour, and diffused in health-giving, wealth- 
giving showers, and sent cleansing away down the 
earth ! Even the little birds,— Sons and Daughters 
of Temperance are they ! — clad in heavenly regalia 
of red, white and blue, caroling new pass-words 
every morning — even the little birds that sip water 
from the pendent leaf-cups of the woods, turn up 
their tiny throats toward God with every delicious 
swallow, as if they knew the Giver of Mercies 1 



1G8 



Common Things, 



Then why should not we, immortal beings, see our 
Father in his gifts, and be ever grateful for the 
unending benedictions that fall upon us out of his 
broad and high, though sometimes clouded, firma- 
ment of Good ? 

Out in the natural world we have seen a wise 
adaptation of agencies to produce beneficial results, 
as already shown in the laws of the dew and the 
light. The same instruction is drawn from the 
Rain, and, as we shall see, in many other processes 
of nature. The material universe is full of agents, 
co-operative, each, in its own proper sphere, with 
every other, in fulfilling the infinite designs. 

The sun's beams animate the earth, quicken its 
vegetation, and invite upward and outward, in the 
influence of prevailing winds, a power which distills 
the rain, and brings it in due seasons and propor- 
tions. The sun lifts the water as vapor from the 
ocean's broad basin, distributes it through the 
infinite ranges of the atmosphere, collects it in 
clouds, and moves it by winds to regions most 
remote, up to elevations of temperature where it 
chills and condenses into drops, and thence it is 
scattered by the law of gravitation as rain upon 
the earth. 



The Rain. 



169 



Now, these illustrations of the Father's goodness 
and care we should recognize about us in nature's 
world. They are legitimate themes of study. They 
are vivid texts for sermons. Be not hesitant to 
talk of them and profit by them and enjoy them, 
merely because some conservative Christian may, 
in his blindness, pronounce them sensational* sub- 
jects. All the works of God are worthy of our 
attention. To investigate the common things of 
creation that crowd around us will lead us to better 
thoughts of God and greater reliance upon his 
protection. In these studies we may learn to read 
many special Providences ; and from the lessons of 
Nature and Providence, we are persuaded that in 
the moral world, God is equally the source of all 
good influences — that his Word is the avenue 
through which his mercies flow free and pure and 
plenteous to all mankind. " For as the rain 
cometh down from heaven, * * * so shall my 
word be," saith the Lord by the lips of the 
prophet, " it shall not return unto me void ; but it 
shall accomplish that which I please, and prosper 
in the thing whereto I sent it." 

The truth proclaimed by the prophet concerning 
Messiah's advent is above and beyond the methods. 



170 



Common Things. 



monarchies and monopolies of men — as are the 
preparation and distribution of the rain. This 
truth comes from a fountain so vast and deep, that 
the whole ocean, in comparison, is but as a drop, 
an iota of invisible mist. The grand facts of a 
Christ, his birth, his life, his suffering, his death, 
his resurrection, his ascension, his intercession, 
and the consequent universal extension of his king- 
dom, and the dissemination of all the essential 
doctrines of salvation, — these great facts are all 
associated with the word that cometh down from 
Heaven. These are the central truths which 
permeate the whole system of revelation, binding 
together all history, all literature, all science, and 
all art in beautiful proportions. The Gospel of 
Jesus Christ comes to earth as glad tidings of 
great joy to all people. It comes with a purpose 
and a power, as the rain comes. It comes free and 
impartial and broadcast, as the rain comes. It 
comes to cheer and nurture and bless, as the rain 
comes. It comes to swell the buds, to open the 
flowers, to brighten the foliage, to ripen the harv- 
ests, and to sweeten the fruits in humanity's great 
garden, as the rain comes. And like the rain, with 
the resistless law of gravitation behind it, so the 



The Rain. 



171 



word of truth comes with the Omnipotent, " shall 
accomplish" behind it, when it reaches the ears and 
hearts of the people. 

The farmer does not order ten thousand buckets 
added to his list of agricultural implements, so that 
water may be carried from adjacent wells and 
rivers to moisten his planted fields. He depends 
on the invisible agencies of the natural world to 
lift the water from the distant ocean, to transport 
it in vapors, and to scatter the gladdening drops 
upon his furrowed corn and harrowed wheat. No 
man can cultivate his farm without faith in the 
higher power. And so it is with the man who 
cultivates his own heart. He feels that he must 
grow in grace and in knowledge. But he can not 
comfort himself with the ten thousand shallow com- 
pliments dipped out of the wells and currents of 
society, however bright and sparkling. Such re- 
freshings are artificial and easily dried away. The 
heart intuitively expects something out of the pure 
regions above. It looks beyond rituals, creeds and 
ceremonies ; beyond all sect-patented philosophies 
and confessions; beyond all systems of moral 
policy and bodily performance — up to the heavens 
of ampler revelation — up tc the infinite sources of 



172 



Common Things, 



all growth and glory. The heart has faith that the 
eternal power which created, can renew and redeem ; 
but it trusts in nothing less. It looks up beseech- 
ingly to the Will Divine, and expects that all its 
thirstings for the gracious rain shall and must be 
supplied. It meets the heaventy word with an 
amen and a welcome, and opens its inmost recesses 
to the reviving power. In such a heart, as in the 
heart of a tender flower withering for rain, the 
blessed word falls to restore and glorify; and 
as the greeted rain brings odor from the reviving 
flower-heart, so a soul that receives the word of 
truth is made to offer its incense of praise for the 
mercy. 

Now, this word, which is compared to the rain, is 
contained in the Sacred Scriptures. The promises 
of the Bible are the seasonably falling rains upon 
thirsty souls. When rain-drops have fallen, the 
clouds that held them are vanished and gone. 
So when the spirit of God's word thrills in refresh- 
ing baptism to the heart, the page of lettered forms 
is unseen. The eye meets the printed words and 
reads them; but the soul, the keener scholar, 
recognizes their intensive meaning, and drinks 
that in revivingly, as a flower drinks in the 



The Rain. 



173 



descending drops that fall out of shadows, until 
shadt svs are rainbowed over and shined away! 

God's communications have been divinely given 
to men. There has been a direct and personal 
interview, and a mutual understanding exists 
between worlds on this subject. Of this Sinai's 
mountain still stands an unburied witness. Heav- 
en's law, as adapted to fallen man, was written on 
two tables of stone, and revealed to this world 
through Moses. That cloud, awful, dark and 
thunderous, which gathered about the summit 
of the Asiatic mountain thousands of years ago, 
was surcharged with benedictions in disguise, such 
as the perishing world most needed then, and ever 
more thirsts to receive. God inspired holy men of 
old with clear perceptions of his truth, and they 
have written his Thoughts and Will, and to us 
they come as the words of eternal authority. The 
Psalmist, referring to the source of all instruction, 
guidance, counsel, admonition, joy and hope, says, 
"Give me understanding according to thy word." 
u Order my steps in thy word." " By the word of 
thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the 
destroyer." " Quicken me according to thy word." 
M I hope in thy wo~d." 



174 



Common Things. 



This word is reaching the wide world by varied 
methods of communication. The power that diffu- 
ses it among the nations is the same that distills the 
dew, flashes the light, and forms and distributes the 
rain. The very elements, fire, air, and water, are 
taught to manufacture Bibles; and the vegetable, 
animal and mineral kingdoms are made contribu- 
tory to the promulgation of the word, until it 
shall fall, ere long, upon all nations, copious and 
welcome as the rain. The Father, Son and Holy 
Spirit unite in proclaiming full and free salvation 
to the world ; and the language of inspiration shall 
accomplish the Divine pleasure, and prosper in the 
people's complete restoration to holiness and 
heaven. God's word shall not return unto him 
void. Its agencies are omni-operative and distinct. 
Its influences on the moral world resemble those of 
the dew, the light and the rain in the world of 
nature. 

The press disseminates the truth. By this 
instrumentality, God's word is indefinitely multi- 
plied. The rags gathered from the streets to-day, 
may, to-morrow, in Bible pages, be as clouds of 
white-winged messengers, bearing the glad news 
afar J For as the bitter sea-billows and murky 



The Rain. 



175 



pools contribute to the fertilitj of the earth by 
evaporation — sending to needy growths the rains 
of summer, — so do the worn-out clothes, and husks, 
and chimney soots of the world, by the economy 
and skill of Christianized science, changed into 
Bibles, go abroad as comely itinerants ordained of 
God, publishing joy to the people. 

This very pulpit Bible before us to-night, show- 
ing us the text, is itself a literal convert from rags 
and waste and ruin : and it teaches, by its material 
as well as by its spirit, that every sinner, ragged, 
wretched and ruined — a mere wreck and shred of a 
better creation — may be himself converted by 
divine grace into a " living epistle read and known 
of all men" — a proclaimer by soul, body and spirit, 
of the glad news to others ever more. 

The word of salvation reaches the people and ac- 
complishes its purpose through various appointed 
agencies. By home instruction the little children 
of Christendom receive their first impression :tf 
religion : by Sabbath school influences and associa- 
tions, thousands are brought to a knowledge of the 
Saviour's love and led to confess their allegiance to 
heaven ; by casual conversation in business, in 
travel, and in social communion, the word of God 



176 



Common Things. 



is made to touch the human heart by its magical 
meaning ; and tearful prayers and joyful expecta- 
tions blend in sweetest accord to convey the gos- 
pel to the soul. 

Christian example is an effectual means of com- 
municating the word to sinners. No language is 
so eloquent as a consistent life. In this the spirit 
of the word, behind its letter, beams through and 
abroad, penetrating the shadowy regions of unbe- 
lief, and piercing the inner heart with a power 
which verbal arguments never achieved. The 
mightiest logic in the Bible is the unworded exam- 
ple of Jesus. There is an irresistible appeal in the 
silences between the sermons and the miracles of 
our Lord. 0, the overcoming consistency of his 
sinless life! Who can withstand it? So, in lesser 
degree, but in the same manner, does the quiet, un- 
swerving, patient and persevering Christian radiate, 
in characters of living light, the gospel of the Son 
of God. By that unlanguaged influence which lies 
back of words and actions, back in the calm interi- 
ors of conscience and motive, the true disciple 
diffuses the truth and love of God, as a flower, 
baptized in rain, diffuses fragrance all around. 



The Rain. 



177 



* The pauses here in life below 

Are gates for God's own entering ; 
The hushings that the weary know, 

Shall angel music soonest bring; 
Its voiceful sounds leave all untold 

The silent wonders of the heart; 
Whose priesthood pure no worship hold 

Till restless feet may all depart. 

" 0, blessed hymns too strong for speech ; 

From silent depths within the soul, 
In solemn joy the tidings preach, 

That waves unknown beyond us roll ; 
That God and angels whisper low, 

To nearer draw the listening ear ; 
Life's chorus hath a silent flow, 

Because the heav'nlier song is near. 

" Then let the heart bid tears away, 

And deeper joy, not wailing, bring, 
For silent prayers, too full to pray, 

For silent songs, too sweet to sing ! 
For hymn and prayer to stillness grow 

Before they dare to reach the throne, 
And quiet death must come and go, 

Before the fuller life is known." 

But the preaching of the word is an especial 
agency for its distribution in communities of men. 
The Master commands his disciples to "go into 
all the world, and preach the gospel to every crea- 
ture." Just as the clouds are commissioned with 
their burdens of blessing to haste and hover over 

the distant wilderness and the remote mountain 

12 



178 



Common Things. 



ravine, and to scatter the rain-drops upon the most 
insignificant specimen of vegetation that ever ven- 
tured to rise superior to a clod ; so the word of the 
Lord, embodied in sermons and songs, is to be dis- 
seminated to every portion of the earth, and to the 
lowliest and obscurest beings of the human race. 
The gospel that recognizes, nurtures and develops 
the white man, must meet and help and culture the 
colored man, as well. No race, or class, or com- 
plexion of people are to be so roofed over by 
political platforms, as to be excluded from this 
Heavenly rain except as it drips on them through 
the crevices of caste ; for all created intelligences 
have, in the gospel economy, an inherent privilege 
of growing up toward God ever more ! And wher- 
ever the Almighty permits men to be born, there he 
meets them with culturing agencies, and they are 
as native to the soil and air as are the palms and 
palmettos of the South or the oaks and cedars of 
the North which wave their proud branches toward 
the smiling skies. 

There was a drought in our dear Columbia 
land ; and oh ! how poor hearts thirsted for the 
word of truth and the liberty it always bears ! 
But at length a cloud arose in the horizon the size 



The Rain. 



179 



of a man's hand. The Sun of Righteousness, 
which had shone into true souls here and there, 
exhaled as incense of prayer the vapors of 
brotherly love, and they curled toward the heav- 
ens to enlarge the gathering cloud. It darkened 
all the land at last. There was silence beneath 
the portentous shade. Political conspirators and 
salaried officials in high places, miserable monopo- 
lists of gospel favors, now, with pale countenances, 
gazed at each other in inexpressible alarm. But 
the weary workingman upon whose upturned and 
dusky face the shadow fell, heard a voice out of the 
cloud, as if standing side by side with Jesus on the 
Mount of Transfiguration, and smiled gratefully to 
God, " who maketh the clouds His chariot ; who 
walketh upon the wings of the wind ; who maketh 
His angels spirits, His ministers a flaming fire." 
It was the word of the Lord God Almighty coming 
with power from on high, down to a disbelieving 
and suffering nation — and coming with best bless- 
ings for that nation's poor. The lightnings blazed 
athwart the gloom, and all the people stood ap- 
palled. The thunders rolled from sea to sea, as if 
to proclaim their accumulated benedictions, ready 
to descend in due time upon Christ's poor, as the 



180 



Common Things. 



unhindered rain upon the grass. Soon the big 
drops dashed down thick and free and fast, on 
mammon fields and heart plantations, until in 
sweeping showers the whole land was refreshed, 
and the bowed people lifted their heads, crowned 
with liberty, and rejoiced. The truth had made 
them free. The word accomplished that whereto it 
was sent. And to-day they are in masses not only 
hearing but reading the word for which they 
pra3 7 ed, and which, in answer, has been broadcast 
on them as the rain. The cloud is lifting away 
and the sunshine is falling through, and the land 
is glowing in its light. Bless God! His word 
does not return to heaven void. It accomplishes 
that which he pleases and prospers in the thing 
whereto it is sent ! 

" The clouds, which rise with thunder, slake 

Our thirsty souls with rain ; 
The blow most dreaded falls to break 

From off our limbs a chain ; 
And wrongs of man to man but make 

The love of God more plain. 
As through the shadowy lens of even 
The eye looks farthest into heaven 
On gleams of star and depth of blue 
The glaring sunshine never knew/' 

But this word has a mission to every individual. 



The Rain. 



181 



bonder is a sinner. Look at him there. It has 
oeen sunshine so long with him that his heart is 
parched and hard. It burns within him like a lit- 
tle hell. The affections have ceased to grow and 
V)loom long since, and are all withering and wasting 
away. He can not love his nearest friends. A 
singeing pain thrills his soul at the remembrance 
of neglected duties and broken vows. As he real- 
izes his own weakness and wretchedness and want, 
the dense clouds between him and heaven seem to 
move. Their strange convolutions intensify the 
darkness, but because they move, he looks and be- 
lieves there is a power that controls the elements. 
Beneath the black vault of his sky, closing down 
over him like a grave, he feels lone and lost and 
forsaken. He trusts no longer in himself. But he 
gazes in the direction where once the sunlight of 
nature greeted his eyes. Alas ! there is no light 
now, save the lurid flashings that blaze across the 
ever deepening clouds of his guilt. The thunderful 
threatenings awake and alarm him in his despair 
His own conscience condemns him. Prostrate 
in repentance he cries for mercy, and his prayer 
pierces the cloud, and reaches the Go 1 who rules 
the storm. He confesses his sins and pleads the 



182 



Common Things. 



merit of the long-rejected Jesus. He remembers 
the words once spoken into his childhood's inno- 
cent soul, by the lips of a mother or a pastor — 
neglected at the hour — " Christ Jesus came into the 
world to save sinners." " The Son of Man came to 
seek and to save that which was lost." These 
words, heard but unheeded in other daj<s, once sent 
to that sinner on an errand of salvation, did not 
return to heaven void. Oh, no! They hovered as 
vapor over his head, ready, in God's time, to form 
as the rain and drop upon the despondent heart, 
parched all over by crime, and to accomplish that 
whereto they had been sent. And now, see ! The 
words of grace and invitation fall fresh and balmy 
as ever a sad soul welcomed in time of need. 0, 
thank God! As they fall he drinks, and as he 
drinks, he is refreshed, and as he is refreshed, a 
new light breaks through the parted clouds. It is 
the reconciled countenance of his Father. The 
olackness passes by ; and lo, on the frown of the de- 
parting cloud, a rainbow arches into view, beaming 
and glowing with the merciful record of his pardon. 
" Thy sins which were many are all forgiven." 

This word sounds in your ears this hour, j r e 
waiting people. Hark ye ! Ponder it well. Your 



The Rain. 



183 



hearts are hard and dry in their need of it, this 
moment. God sends it to you, just now, just 
where and as you are, to accomplish, if you will, 
your present and your eternal salvation. Either, 
out of the accumulating cloud, the one or the other 
— the vengeance or the mercy — you must receive in 
your bosom soon, and bear it as } T our unchanging 
portion forever. 



II. 



THE SNOW. 

Pi-aise the Lord, snow and vapors, fulfilling his 
word. Psalm cxlviii. 7, 8. 

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Psalm 
li.7. 

DOUBLE text of praise and prayer! 
There is scarcely any thing in this wide 
world, so light, pale and powerless as a 
snow-flake. When first formed, it is finished. It 
develops no more. Indeed, it is most mature in its 
infancy ; for its birth is its beauty and perfection. 

But we must not think of it as animate, because 
it has no organization. "It is not a positive thing 
at all ; but a negative, formed by the withdrawal of 
heat from the atmosphere where the vapor has 
risen in response to the upward calls. The snow- 
flake is made in silence, away in the obscurity of 
the radiant ether ; and appears quavering down 
toward the earth in uncertain motion, half at- 
tracted, and half let alone." It rests upon a dry 

leaf in suc'.i timidity, or touches your window-sill 
184 




The Snow. 



187 



with such a delicate step, that, looking out from 
the comfortable side of the pane, you must pity 
its utter helplessness and embarrassment. How 
tender the young snow ? "And if }~ou raise the 
window, and put forth your hand to help the virgin 
stranger, your finger touch destroj ? s it."* If you will 
go out and train your hand to hardness and to 
cold, while your heart is thereby made the more 
soft and warm, the snow-flake will nestle a mo- 
ment in your palm ; but it will die there, and dis- 
appear in a moment as something that was not. 
And yet, even the filmy, unsubstantial snow-flake, 
unit of a mystic and equal brotherhood, when 
multiplied, becomes a mighty power. When mar- 
shaled in companies of millions, and sent marching 
in white uniform and with shining spears across 
the sky, the very sun seems to retreat, the eyes of 
strong men ache and weep, and bravest beasts are 
sent shivering and crouching before the conquering 
host! The " white-plumed light infantry of the 
clouds," as some one calls the snow, without a bugle- 
sound, takes continents, as armies of men take 
fields ; and sends nations of builders and boasters 
chattering: and blinded to their refuses, as a vie- 



* Snowflakes. 



188 



Common Things. 



torious army sends its captured legions to prisons 
and to hospitals. What cares the snow for your 
old landmarks, your unfinished plans, your un 
gathered corn ? It comes without an apology or 
an explanation, to accomplish, like the rain, tha* 
vvhereunto it was sent ; and it is ours to study the 
lessons it teaches, and remember the meaning of 
him who "giveth snow like wool." 

Then who will complain at the pinching frosts, and 
the whirling snows ? Our mother earth must have her 
rest. Her summer toil and autumn burdens have all 
been borne that we might be fed and clothed. Let the 
Infinite Father spread over the sleeper a covering 
of celestial purity and unbroken comfort, for the an 
gels wove it well ; and let us all be quiet while our 
weary mother sleeps on and takes her needed rest. 

The snow, as well as the dew and the rain, is a 
benefactor, and, like them, performs a special work in 
the economy of Nature. By infinite avenues, by 
unseen agencies, by well-appointed methods, even 
while all may seem confusion and gloom to us, the 
earth receives supplies from the Bountiful Hand 
although gloved in a storm-cloud, which shall spring 
up from under the snow in bloom and bounty by 
and by, and become very bread and very life to you 



The Snow. 



189 



and me. Then, beautiful as fields of fragrant 
clover opening their sweet treasures to the bees, is 
the beautiful snow, dancing through the air, whiten- 
ing the ground, robing the hemlocks ! Beautiful 
ice, crystaling the pools and rivers, sheeting the 
lakes, shining as a diamond cornice along the 
eaves of mansion and cabin alike, and pictured on 
window panes by the magical artists of the night. 
"Ever} thing is beautiful m his time all cieation 
praises God ; " snow and vapor, fulfilling his word " 
How expressively the poet sings: — 

"All this uniform uncolored scene 
Shall be dismantled of its fleecy load, 
And flush into variety again. 
From dearth to plenty, and from death to life, 
Is Nature's progress when she lectures man 
In heavenly truth ; evincing, as she makes 
The grand transition, that there lives and works 
A soul in all things, and that soul is God. 
The beauties of the wilderness are his, 
That make so gay the solitary place * 
Where no eye sees them ; and the fairer forms 
That cultivation glories in are his. 
He sets the bright procession on its way, 
And marshals all the order of the year : 
He marks the bounds which Winter may not pass, 
And blunts its pointed fury; in its case, 
Russet and rude, folds up the tender germ, 
Uninjured, with inimitable art; 
And, ere one flowering season fades and dies 
Designs the blooming wonder of the next." 



190 



Common Things. 



Obedience to law is apparent in all the works of 
Nature. However varied the structure, or compli- 
cate the movements, or multiform the aspects of 
God's inanimate creations, there is a unifold design 
running through all of them, — a key to harmonize 
their diversities, and to show the beauty and be- 
nevolence of every scheme in the material universe. 
Dew, light, and rain; hail, rainbow, snow, and 
vapor, as we see, are all the servants of his Will, 
praising his Name, revealing his Wisdom, and 
fulfilling his Word. 

Every snow-flake, whatever be the model of its 
structure, is complete, regular and exquisitely 
beautiful. Every angle of frame-work, or cross-line, 
is according to a definite rule in mathematics, not a 
degree less or more. The number of parts is 
uniform. There is never a snow-star with five 
rays or seven. The architecture of the everlasting 
heavens is no more precise or symmetrical than that 
of the snow-flake which falls trembling from their 
ample dome. And ever}' one is perfect. There are 
no distorted, irregular portions of God's workman- 
ship shoved off to obscure corners of creation. The 
tiniest flake that falls away in the vast polar soli- 
tudes where no human ej r e will ever see it, or sinks 



The Snow. 



191 



to instant burial in the sea, is fashioned with as much 
care and delicacy as if it were a diamond to sparkle 
for all ages in earth's richest diadem. The laws 
of beauty and order are universal throughout the 
broad domains of the Almighty. 

And among the infinite varieties of snow-crystals, 
this law of unit}' is never reversed or set aside by 
an accident. In the formation of the crystal, its 
sides and lines are always arranged at the angle of 
sixty degrees, or some multiple of that number. 
This is one sixth of the complete circle ; hence the 
hexiform, or six-sided configuration of its prisms 
and plates. Let the congealing vapor assume, in 
the cold heights and tossing winds, what fantastic 
shapes it will, — let it riot in the profusion of its 
flirtations ; yet it can never escape the control of 
that central law of unity w T hich binds its particles 
into form, and makes it beautiful. 

Indeed, in this do we discover the secret of the 
name, flakes, that is, flocks, the fleecy crystals, like 
playful little animals gamboling wantonly over the 
broad fields of the air ; yet each one of them is 
retained within a common ownership and belongs 
to the single fold. Not a single one among all the 
mixing millions, but what answers to the will of its 



192 



Common Things. 



Maker, and fulfills in its every form, feature and 
movement, his infinite word. 

Something like this is that mystic but mighty 
unity in God's great law of love in his spiritual 
domain. God is love; and love is pure, well- 
ordered, lawful, beautiful, benevolent, and controls 
the movements of all the shining ranks of heaven. 
Bo among all true Christians on earth. Howevei 
diverse and apparently confused the goings and 
doings of God's children, — however different their 
names or individual their beliefs ; yet, in heart they 
answer to the unifold and universal law of love, 
whose center is God, and whose power is omnipo- 
tent. And in the numberless worlds which fill 
immensity, out through all the ranges of sentient 
being and capacity, it needs but the fulfillment of 
this law, as we dimly see it illustrated in snow and 
vapor fulfilling his word, to secure universal and 
everlasting joy. Love is the one principle which 
binds all individuals and all nations to one another, 
and each to his throne forever. 

God is not only Love ; but he is Beauty. Both are 
scattered broadcast over his dominions, reaching 
and illuminating a new world rolling in its orbit 
or gemming a tiny snow-flake sent floating to 



The Snow. 



193 



its death in an alien atmosphere. For the whole 
universe is full of conscious intelligence, and 
marvelous adaptations, all teaching men to lift 
up their voices in worshipful accord with crea- 
tion's grander harmonies, singing, " Praise the 
Lord, praise the Lord, snow and vapors, fulfilling 
his word." 

Here is a lesson, too, of obedience. God tells the 
snow-flake to assume such a form, and go to such a 
place, and the forming and the going are beauteous, 
for it departs without murmuring or reluctance. 
So by his divine law, he says to each one of you, 
take thought for the image you bear, and the work 
you do. And as the whiteness of the snow is 
owing to the reflection of light from the minute 
faces of it? crystals, which are as small mirrors, so 
reflect, in your daily duties, the likeness of Jesus, 
who is your light ; be pure, be true, and go hither 
and thither, and as you obey you will be arrayed in 
beauty, and will bless the world wherever you 
touch it ; and though your bodily form should sink 
and be lost in rough contact with sin, yet the 
sacred element within, the soul, the secret of your 
real life, will be exhaled by God's resurrection 

power into higher heavens again, gloriously re-em- 

13 



194: 



Common Things. 



bodied, clothed in raiment whiter than snow, and 
crowned with immortality. 

Do a little good at a time, and all the time, 
as God appoints and helps. A great life is an 
aggregate of littles, each little being significant, 
well-ordered, and complete. Every little thought 
and word and act of a human life, is associated 
with a moment of conscious, responsible will ; and 
the individual thoughts controlled, programmed, 
and executed, one after another, will make a life of 
accelerating influence and power. 

The garment of open-textured summer green 
which clad the Allegheny Mountain in the pleasant 
days, has faded, and, leaf by leaf, as torn and 
tattered apparel, has fallen to the ground. But the 
God of Love has ordered from his infinite store- 
house a new robe for the great Allegheny Mountain, 
needy of care as the poorest little orphan that ever 
cried in the midnight cold for shelter. How shall 
the Mountain receive his dress ? Will a seamless 
vestment, ready made to fit his rugged shoulders 
and fall in graceful folds about his naked feet, drop 
from heaven and encircle that mighty form out- 
standing in the cold ? No, not so. Millions 
of tin^ r maids of industry will come tripping down 



The Snow. 



195 



the silent stairwaj^s of the air, and each one with 
some little thread to weave in the gorgeous robe. 
Every one will clo a little — a very little — for the 
Mountain disrobed of his summer mantle, but wait- 
ing for a benevolent heaven to reclothe him in his 
time of desolation ; and in a little while, soon as a 
baby's cloak could be made, the everlasting giant 
will stand arrayed in his celestial garment ! Flake 
by flake the great white robe was formed and fash- 
ioned to its wearer in beautiful and becoming pro- 
portions, shielding the Mountain and all his life 
from the penetrating frosts of winter. 

So all good is done. Word by word you impress 
your friend — a poor sinner — unclad and unclean, 
wretched, and shivering in his want of some- 
thing the world has not to give, — something that 
must come from above ; and one by one your 
thoughts touch him, Holy Spirit comfortings are 
they, and you the. agent of their utterance and ap- 
plication, — until, see ! he stands mantled in the 
seamless robe of a Saviour's righteousness. 

You may be a Sabbath school teacher. Be 
patient and persevering day by day. Remember: 
it is word by word, look by look, prayer by prayer, 
lesson by lesson, — and your teachings, like the deli- 



196 



Common Things. 



cate and beautiful snow-flakes, will form a protec- 
tion for character by and by. Keep on, and on, 
and on. That is the way the naked Allegheny 
gets his winter robe. No flake is useless. No 
good is lost. So, stop never to count your words 
or acts but repeat and re-repeat, and go on beyond 
the seven times in forbearance, and the seventy 
times seven, ever and ever more ; scatter abroad 
as God does when he snows, little by little, without 
noise, or parade, or promise. Father, mother, 
teacher, every worker for Jesus, trying to comfort 
and whiten this dark-hearted world, keep on and 
on forever. 

" Nothing is lost, — 
No snow nor frost 
That comes to enrich the earth again. 
We thank them when the ripening grain 
Is waving over the hill and plain, 
And the pleasant rain springs from earth again 
All ends in good, 
Water and food. 
" Never despair; 
Disappointment bear; 
Though hope seem vain, be patient still; 
Thy good intent God will fulfill ; 
Thy hand is weak ; his powerful will 
Is finishing thy life-work still. 

The good endeavor 
Is lost — ah ! never." 

But this individualizing brings us more directly 



The Snow. 



197 



to the prayer-portion of the text ; " Wash me, and I 
shall be whiter than snow." 

The snow so white comes out of a black cloud, 
not from a clear sky. It does not come from those 
pale and fleecy clouds you sometimes see floating 
and basking in the winter sun. It is when the 
heavens are dark, and it is out of the murk} T bosom 
of the blackest cloud above you that the beautiful 
white snow comes down. Not lightning, nor thun- 
der, nor hail, in the winter gloom ; no, nothing but 
the pure, soft, innocent, noiseless snow ! 

David was black enough — blacker than a cloud, 
blacker than any slave, and, what was worse, bis 
blackness was blackest within. His soul was pol- 
luted. The soots and filths of an adulterous city 
had settled all over his heart. Yet he prays to be 
washed, and knows that if God will wash him, he 
shall be clean, — whiter than snow ! Corrupt as he 
is, he tells a blessed secret — that God can not be 
asked too much- He is not too low to pray ; no 
man ever is. And he individualizes, wash me ; not 
us, not my family, not my friends, not my com- 
rades in guilt, — not the world ; wash me. Ah, yes ! 
Here is the pollution on my own heart. I know 
what I have done ; I feel the consequent remorse. I 



198 



Common Things. 



can not deceive, or escape, or excuse myself, — wash 
me. I need the cleansing, and shall die in my sins 
unless I cry, and am heard and helped of Him who 
made the heavens and the earth. Wash me ! 

And David, although so sinful, because he con- 
fessed, repented, and prayed, was washed and 
made clean ; and now his name shines on the Bible 
page; and now, whiter than snow, he shines in his 
kingly robes at Jesus 's feet ! Even on earth, he 
called upon all within him to praise the Lord. He 
felt that w r hat God promises he does, both in the 
natural and in the spiritual worlds ; that his word 
is yea and amen, spoken and fulfilled to the minut- 
est letter. 

See, now, in heaven ! Who are these in white 
robes, and whence came they ? These are they 
who came out of great tribulation — out of the 
world's dark dens of sin and death. Some were 
thieves. Some were robbers. Some were murder- 
ers. Some were adulterers. Some were both, as 
David was. Manasseh, who reddened the streets 
of Jerusalem with innocent blood, forgiven and 
glorified, is there. Mary Magdalena, whuse heart 
was the banqueting place of seven devils, but from 
which they were driven out to make room for the 



The Sno w. 



199 



Holy One, is there ; and millions more, once vile 
as they. Bat they repented, believed, and were 
washed in the blood of the Lamb ; and now yonder 
they stand in white raiment, praising the Lord. 
There is not a stain on their garments, nor the 
shadow of a sorrow on their hearts. They, once 
so sinful, are safe in heaven now, every trouble 
forgotten, and every tear wiped away. 

David knew the heinousness of sin. He con- 
fessed it. He knew what God could do for him 
as an individual ; and he prays for washing with 
a faith that pictures the beauty and purity of a 
pardoned soul — a whiteness intenser than whiteness 
of snow ! 

Paul calls himself the chief of sinners, and yet 
magnifies the blessed gospel of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

It becomes the power of God unto salvation, not 
onty to him, but to every one that believeth. All 
is a broad word in the gospel ; but every comes 
straight home to one's heart. Jesus Christ, by the 
grace of God, tasted death for every man. Ho, 
every one that thirsts, come to the waters ! The 
invitation is emphasized to individuals. " Son, 
daughter, give me thy heart." 



200 



Common Things. 



Now, sinner, respond for yourself, open your own 
heart heavenward, and however black its corrup- 
tion, pray and beseech, " Wash me, me, and I shall 
be whiter than snow." God alone, who hears your 
prayer, alone can cleanse your soul. No priest 
can do it. The pardon you need is not printed 
in a creed. You can not find it in any service, 
or form, or ordinance, however closely you search. 
What you require can be adapted to no other, 
and no other's pardon or prayer can be adapted 
to you. Send up your own petition at once : 
" Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned. O 
Thou Cleanser from all sin, wash me, wash me, and 
I shall be whiter than snow." 

Now, truly, there is not a sinner in any com- 
munity, but who, by asking, however dark the 
record of his sins, may go out to his work and 
home to his friends, with a heart washed and 
whiter than snow. All your accumulated trans- 
gressions can not block up that fountain opened 
in the city of David for sin and uncleanness. 

The devil would have you believe that your 
sin, somehow, is an exception ; and that others 
are invited, and others may be saved. There are 
no exceptions to the gospel offer and the gospel 



The Snow. 



201 



power. The very man who imagines his own case 
to be so peculiar and hopeless, shows strongest 
evidence that his is the case which God will ac- 
cept. For it is sinners, lost and ruined, whom 
Jesus comes to seek and save. The whole need 
not a physician, but they who are sick. 

Nothing but Christ's blood can cleanse you. 
Had there been any thing else, David would have 
found it. The priesthood of his kingdom was em- 
inent and powerful. He had all the world could 
afford. But feeling his want, and looking beyond 
his wealth and social surroundings, he calls all 
the way up from his own soul to Almighty God 
for cleansing. King David must come to the same 
blood which was shed for the poor, for all, for 
every one, for you, and for me. 

God himself would have substituted something 
else, if there had been, in all the universe, any other 
way to redeem the sinner. For it was "last of all" 
that he sent his Son. No other means could be 
found. It was laid on One who is mighty to save. 
No other hand could help. No other eye could 
pity. So God interposed, and sent his Son, say- 
ing, "They will reverence my Son." All other 
remedies had been tried and failed. But now 



202 



Common Things. 



there is a Way. sinner, come here, come now, 
come just as you are, come, wash and be clean! 

Here the blackest may be made whiter than 
snow. You may feel that you are beyond the 
reach of salvation. Your sin may seem greater 
than your brother's — greater than a blasphemer's, 
— greater than any prisoned criminal's ; but is not 
greater than the power of Christ's blood. Few 
sins could be more awful than the combined iniqui- 
ties of David. Take them all. Count the aggre- 
gate. See how ungrateful he was ! — how willful in 
his crime — how he ruined a husband and then put 
him to death ! How like a heathen he lived ! 
Barbarians have been cruel. Superstition has been 
wanton and horrible in its deed. But this man 
had known the grace and beheld the glory of the 
Lord. And yet he sinned, and sinned so shame- 
fully. But he cried for mercy. He prayed for 
cleansing. " Wash me — even me — and I shall be 
whiter than snow." 

Sinner, the harvest is past, the summer is ended 
and you are not saved. The winter days are com- 
ing. The first snow has already fallen. The next 
is floating in the clouds. Let not the crystal puri- 
ties whiten the ground at your feet, until you send 



The Snow. 



203 



heavenward a plea for salvation, and beseech God, 
for Christ's sake, to cleanse you from all sin. 
Reverse the texts. Take first the prayer, " Wash 
me, and I shall be whiter than snow," and repeat 
it until your forgiven spirit exultingly leaps out in 
a song to the other ; " Praise the Lord, praise the 
Lord, snow and vapors, fulfilling his word." 

"Praise the Lord, my soul; 
And all that is within me, 
Bless his Holy Name I" 



III. 



§1 



THE HAIL. 

Tlte hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, 
Isaiaii xxviii. 17, 

OU may recollect a phenomenon which oc- 
curred one clear, starry October night, in 
the year 1848. There was observed to 
stream upward from the horizon, north, east, south 
and west, simultaneously, flashes of electric light — 
long pendulous curtains, in dissevered but parallel 
belts, lifted up and up, higher and higher, as if 
mighty angels, striking a tent for the w r orld, were 
drawing and fastening the brilliant folds together 
at a lofty center in the zenith. There the royal 
drapery was secured, and thence its grand, white, 
quivering breadths swept down in beauty to the 
earth ; while beneath its ample dome, chat night, thou- 
sands of people stood and wondered in solemn joy. 

So is the light of Truth rising all around us 
these latter days, out of history, out of science, out 
of art, out of commerce, out of politics, out of litera- 
ture, out of all things in Nature as well as out of 
201 



Tm Hail, 



205 



all impulses and promptings in Grace — rising as re- 
flected light from God's own broad firmament of 
Revelation; and beneath the magnificent pavilion 
thoughtful men stand and contemplate the won- 
drous scene. The truths of the gospel are break- 
ing irresistibly forth from the low obscurities ot 
sect and party, ceremony and service, and beaming 
in timely recognition of the Divine Mind and Will, 
even from the world's dim and dumb materialities, 
and rising to a heavenly center of radiation beyond 
the stars. The spreading folds of the new taber 
nacle, beneath which all men may stand and wor- 
ship, shall be radiant with the light of science 
blended with the light of revelation, the beautiful 
of this world mingling with the beautiful of the 
celestial world, and all suspended protectingly over 
us from the throne of our risen Christ. Then let 
us look for truth in all creations around us, and in 
all phenomena above us, and expect it to open 
before us, and radiate about us from its exalted 
center forever more. Such a pavilion is the church. 
Under its high and spreading folds are safety and 
satisfaction. The free and unsectarianized church 
of Jesus Christ uses all the good, the beautiful, the 
true of this world, and weaves them in with the 



206 



Common Things. 



graces and glories which fall from Heaven ; and 
beneath these merciful surroundings, the heavenly 
sustaining the earthly, the souls of men are inspired 
with hope and prompted to work as well as worship. 
This is the eternal refuge of Truth. The gates of 
hell shall not prevail against it. It shall stand 
illuminated forever. Its light shall increase ; its 
glory shall intensify ; its folds shall enlarge. 
Nothing shall shadow its beauty or disturb its 
security while immortality endures. Within its 
sacred enclosure there is room for all the human 
race, and the way is open day and night, and a 
thousand welcomes await every soul that enters. 

" The Church of Christ that He hath hallowed here 
To be His house, is scattered far and near, 
In North, and South, and East, and West abroad, 
And yet in earth and heaven, through Christ her Lord, 
The Church is one." 

But there are innumerable false refuges all around 
in the dark distances which lie outside the pavilion 
of the church. Beyond the horizons of Heaven's 
revealed light, and also within its range, but sheltered 
in mammon masques, are millions of immortal souls, 
deceived and begloomed in error and sin. With 
our thoughts upon these imperiled ones, dear rela- 



The Hail. 



207 



tives and friends, many of them, let us consider their 
condition and the meaning of the prophet's words. 

Your attention has been directed to the culturing 
agencies in nature, such as the rain and the snow. 
Now we come to contemplate an influence, formed 
b}' similar phenomena of evaporation and condensa- 
tion, which is known only as a destroyer — the 
Hail. Where hail is mentioned in the Bible, it is to 
indicate confusion and calamity. 

God has the power to disarrange, reverse and 
destroy, as well as to nurture, advance and protect. 
You have noticed, in reading the Scriptures, an- 
other fact : the hail is associated with fire — a touch- 
ing of extremes among the elements — showing that 
the formation of the icy drops is intimately con- 
nected with electricity. Then the deeper lesson 
here again, is, that God's judgments are intimately 
connected with his love, — that the one attribute is 
complemented by the other, — that it is a God of 
Justice who exercises Mercy, and that the one is 
as essential to the Divine character as the other. 
Now, as thousands of } r ears ago, the laws of science 
are corroborated by the statements of Scripture, 
their one common Author being " the same yester- 
day, and to-day and forever." Wherever the test 



208 



Common Things. 



of scientific truth is applied to the Sacred Writings, 
their record is fully sustained down to the minutest 
particulars. " The hammer of the geologist shall 
never be able to break in pieces the Rock of Ages, 
nor the telescope of the scientist to detect a spot 
on the Sun of Righteousness." And in all the 
infinite ranges of Revelation and Providence be- 
tween the Word which was in the Beginning and 
the Word made Flesh, there is not an object or an 
incident which does not evidence, when studied and 
interpreted, the truthfulness of the Bible and its 
exact adaptations to the wants of men. The laws 
which form the dew,* rain, and snow, are the same 
that govern the hail — evaporation, condensation, 
and gravitation. The only difference is in the fact 
that the humidity of the atmosphere in the forma- 
tion of hail is elevated to higher, swifter currents 
of opposing winds, in a temperature where it con- 
denses into compacter particles than those, which, 
in calmer regions, compose the snow, or, in still 
milder, the rain, or, in the mildest of all, the dew. 

A traveler, in describing a hail-storm at Constan- 
tinople, represents the ice-drops as being the size 

* For perusal, on the laws and lessons of the Dew, see article in 
Our Schoolday Visitor, vol. xii., page 102. 



The Hail. 



209 



of apples, and their descent as accompanied by a 
sound like rumbling thunder, or like the noise of 
innumerable carriages rolling furiously over a 
pavement. 

Balls of ice weighing more than a pound rattled 
like grape-shot among the shipping, and stripped 
the trees of foliage and limbs, leaving them almost 
bare in their desolation. The spectacle is said to 
have been awful, beyond description. "The roofs 
were crushed in ; windows were riddled like tissue 
paper ; vineyards were cut to pieces ; oars were 
shivered to splinters in the boatmen's hands ; ani- 
mals were beaten to death in the fields ; men were 
killed and wounded in the streets. It was as if the 
heavens had suddenly frozen over, and as suddenly 
been broken to pieces by the tramp of heaven's 
artillery into irregular fragments of ice and precipi- 
tated to the earth."* Such occurrences in oriental 
lands are frequent as they are fearful, and give 
peculiar significance to the words of the prophet. 

The most tremendous hail mentioned in the Bible 
is that alluded to in the book of Revelation, 
" Every stone was about the weight of a talent." 
In comparison with this, all other sizes and weights 

* Ooininodore Porter's Letters from Constantinople, vol. i., p. 44. 
14 



210 



Common Things. 



of hail-stones are diminished almost to noiseless 
dew. A talent among the Greeks was a weight 
equivalent to fifty-seven pounds avoirdupois, and 
among the Hebrews, to about ninety pounds. 
What an appalling representation of power and 
devastation ! But all these references have a mean- 
ing, and to discover something of their significance 
is more directly our present object. We have seen, 
that, upon the responsive bosom of the earth, 
vegetation is refreshed and increased by the clew 
which distills in quiet hours and cloudless nights ; 
and have learned, by this illustration, how the Holy 
Spirit descends to nurture expectant hearts. We 
have seen how the rain, which revives the earth and 
promotes its myriad growths, falls from clouds and 
out of darkness in due seasons and proportions ; 
and have learned how God's mercy issues out of 
sorrowful surroundings and incalculable circum- 
stances to bless the waiting and willing soul. But 
we see that hail has its origin at a higher elevation, 
above the level of rain-clouds, and in the region of 
fierce currents and cold ; that it forms and falls in 
accordance with a law which regulates the general 
temperature and purity of the whole earth's atmos- 
phere. 



The Hail. 



211 



The seeming calamities which result from the 
fall of the hail are really evidences that the 
Supreme Creator regards the welfare of the uni- 
verse, and maintains it, oftentimes, by disarranging 
the local and isolated affairs of this world. In 
order that the infinite purposes of God may be ac- 
complished, he frequently destroys the inefficient 
to accommodate the essential agents of his will ; or, 
rather, he makes room for the new by removing the 
old, as an architect who clears a place of its rubbish 
and ruin, that the substantial and beautiful building 
may be reared. For there never was a city built 
until thousands of cumbering trees had been felled, 
and millions of blades of unneeded grass trodden 
underfoot. The debris accumulating in unsightly 
masses along Fifth Street, these latter days, ob- 
structing travel and business, is patiently endured, 
because it shows a power at work with pick and 
spade, opening and enlarging ways to cleanse the 
city for time to come ; and the miniature rocky 
mountain range stretching in front of our own 
church edifice, is a suosiantial argument that 
rough places shall be made smooth, — that the irony 
week day noises of our streets shall be subdued, 
and that Sabbath worshipers by and by shall be 



212 



Common Things. 



undisturbed by clanging hoofs and wheels along the 
pavement.* So the Maker and Builder of all 
things uses his own material throughout the wide 
domain of his universe in his own way, forever en- 
larging and glorifying his creation, although some- 
times tearing our hindering fabrics to pieces, and 
apparently confusing and destroying even what his 
own hands have permitted ; but all with a benevo- 
lent object in view which shall be realized only in 
the light of eternity. Now, as the rain falls from 
the clouds to refresh and beautify the thirsty earth, 
so mercy descends to comfort and cheer the respon- 
sive heart. But above the rain-clouds are the hail- 
clouds. So above God's mercy is his justice. It 
was to satisfy justice that the Son of God suffered 
for sin. God is love; but divine love is always 
pure and true and just. Mercy is purchased and 
proffered to the world, by the blood of Jesus Christ, 
the Just, atoning for man, the unjust ! Although 
mercy is full and free and impartial as the rain that 
falls upon the grass ; yet, above the blessed clouds 
from which mercy rains on willing souls, there is 
the eternal, immutable justice of Jehovah, which, 



* Spoken at a time when the work of substituting the Nicholson, 
for the common pebble pavements, was under way. 



The Hail. 



213 



in an appointed way and time, will meet the 
impenitent. 

For God will overcome all err r and wrong, and 
over the ruins of conquered obstinac} r , he will 
broaden his Kingdom of Truth. He builds in only 
the good, shaping and fitting it to his plans ; and 
he removes and destroys the bad, regardless of its 
appearance. He recognizes in every man his free 
agency, and permits him to believe and live, or 
disbelieve and die, as he will. God's will is that no 
one should perish. Man's own will is the wrong 
will — the will that makes confusion and trouble — 
the only will in the universe that chooses death 
rather than life, for the fallen angels have no Jesus 
to die and live again for them. And because God's 
mercy is rejected, his justice, which caused his 
dear Son to suffer, is mocked ; and upon this willful 
disobedience and persistent contempt, his righte- 
ous displeasure falls to show the integrity of his 
throne, and his regard for the welfare of all worlds, 
even if this world should, in belts of its surface, be 
scourged as beneath the dashing of the hail. But, 
notice the wording and take the meaning of the 
Scripture words: "The hail shall sweep away the 
refuge of lies." The driving forces of God's justice 



214 



Common Things. 



are not directed against lying individuals so much 
as against the associations which make them lie ; 
not against sinners so much as sin; not against 
souls so much as the systems of error which enwrap 
and enrapture them ; not against people so much as 
policy, party, sect, and all other mammon-made 
refuges which receive and ruin both the souls and 
bodies of men. 

But some refuge is required. In every im- 
seared conscience there is a lurking sense of 
guilt. To deny it will not stifle its whispers. 
Light words dancing on the lips will not divert 
the deep sorrow from sinking in the heart. The 
sinner carries a weight upon his soul, as a culprit a 
chain in his cell. There is no moving without 
hearing its dreadful, discordant noise. He has 
read the law, and stands condemned. He has 
dishonored himself and rejected the Saviour, and 
now remorse sickens his soul. He knows that 
God is angry with the wicked every day ; and he 
longs to be freed from his forebodings and fears. 
Indulgence in crime, no matter when, or by whom, 
or under what circumstances, brings a guilty sting, 
and in solemn midnights startles the sinner from 
his dreams, to remind him of a settlement coming 



The Hail, 



215 



due, and a penalty to be paid. Then, under the 
burden of his condemnation, afraid to die, and 
ashamed to live, he thinks of reconciliation. In 
trembling and in tears, alone, in the sweep of the 
tempest, homeless, helpless, and forsaken, born 
with capacity for heaven, but exposed every mo- 
ment to hell, — seeing the avenger, and pleading to 
escape, he sighs, and cries, and starts, and struggles 
for a refuge. 

Yonder is a man overtaken by calamity. In an 
hour his home is swept away. His business is 
ruined. His credit is lost. Sickness, ready prowler 
alter secular misfortune, enters his family. A loved 
one pales and dies. The hearse rumbles away with 
the dear form, and the grave receives it out of 
sight, and opens again and again, like a ravenous 
mouth, greedy for more, until child after child is 
swallowed away. Every hope blasted, his poor 
heart, pierced through and through, is beating and 
breaking with sorrow. He suffers on alone for 
awhile ; but strength fails, the soul becomes rest- 
less, alarmed, and craves and wrestles for a refuge. 

Standing here to-night in God's name, with many 
young men before me,* prosperous and well, yet 



*' Addressed to the Young Men's Christian Association of Pittsburgh. 



216 



Common Things. 



sad-hearted, it may be, tempted, uncared for, un- 
friended, in a city of crowding strangers, exposed 
to delusion and death, I would here, now, preach 
Jesus Christ to every unsettled soul, a "hiding 
place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, the 
shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Yes, the 
heart needs a refuge, and in the church of the 
living God, broad, free, and inviting, with its 
canopy of glory, and its associations of joy and 
peace, the burdened soul may find sweet rest for- 
ever more. 

But beware of mistaken shelters. Young men in 
masses, seeking the truth, are being decoyed into 
refuges of lies ! Let me warn you of some of the 
most dangerous of them. There is, 

1. Eeformatism. This is a place of compromise 
with the enemy of souls. He argues that a man 
may abandon the grosser vices, such as licentious- 
ness, drunkenness, blasphemy, and fraud. He will 
recommendingiy say at the entrance of this false 
refuge, " Give up the great sins, and you are safe." 
And then the arch Deceiver will chuckle to himself, 
"I'll damn that man by inches ; I'll keep him busy 
with his small sins ; I'll belittle him to his eternal 
ruin ; I'll tempt and trap him into so many petty 



The Hail. 



217 



meannesses that he will never dream of the fearful 
aggregate ; and when he wakes, the heavenly doors 
will be shut." 

Self-reformer, be advised in time. Your mistake 
is a fatal one. Sin is a disease which brings death. 
The amputation of a single limb will not save you. 
You must be cleansed in Christ's blood from all 
unrighteousness, and cleansed at once. If you 
imagine that your sins are little sins and easily 
forgotten, and that your condition is as favorable 
as that of a score of your associates, who, like 
yourself, are sinners in small ways, let me tell 
you that you have crept into a refuge of lies. 
Every sin must be utterly abandoned. The heart 
must be changed, and the whole life not merely 
reformed, but transformed and conformed to the 
will of Christ. You must respond to His love, 
and be ready to do all things in honor of His 
name. 

2. Moralism. This is another fashionable and 
false refuge. How the young men are crowding 
into it ! Does a moralist wish a refuge ? You 
claim to be an upright, downright dealer. You are 
educated, respected and honored. You answer 
promptly all demands on your patriotism, sympathy 



218 



Common Things. 



and benevolence. You appreciate the institutions 
of your country — your home, your family, your 
party. You are neighborly, kind, generous, gentle- 
hearted and merciful. Your language is pure, 
chaste and elegant, your manners amiable, and 
your reputation untarnished. 

But, after all, you govern your conduct by the 
outward regulations of society, and depend on your 
own power to resist temptation and wrong. You 
aim by words and works of charity to merit heaven 
— to rise thither by your own aspirations. You 
are trying to be your own Christ. You forget that 
in Adam all men are dead in trespass and sin, 
and that only in Jesus can any man be made alive. 
You orget that there is but one name given under 
heaven and among men whereby you can be saved. 
Your ow r n name is nothing. Every thing in you 
and about you is nothing. Your good works are 
but a foundation of sand. In the one thing lacking 
are included all things needful for your salvation. 
Your sins must not only be put away, but forgiven. 
Your heart must be changed, so that self will yield 
to Christ, and that his righteousness may be in 
you, the all in all forever. Your wrappage of 
noble deeds is of frail and fading texture. You 



The Hail. 



219 



must be converted, and become as a little child, 
willing: to attribute all honor to Christ who died 
for you, and to be led into all duty by the Spirit. 
You have a long record of unpardoned sins — un- 
pardoned because unbrought to the Saviour — and 
you must acknowledge the account, and ask your 
Surety to relieve you from the obligation. Your 
unforgiven sins will all appear before you in the 
judgment day, although you may think them for- 
gotten long ago. Heaven's bills presented, put 
off, repudiated, are never outlawed by lapse of 
time. No page or item is ever lost from that book 
of accounts. You are in clanger now. Answer 
this question, although it cut yon to the quick, 
though it prove you to be wrong, although every 
syllable fall on your heart like chilling hail — Are 
you converted** You are in arrears on Heaven's 
ledger for innumerable omissions of duty; and that 
record is as distinctly marked as the record of any 
violent transgression, and can be canceled only 
by the same hand that was pierced. Take Jesus 
with you now, and go to God, and settle. Staying 
concealed in your mistaken shelter will never re- 
lease you from the debt you owe. Better a thou- 
sand times to find yourself a bankrupt, hand-in- 



220 



Common Things, 



hand with Christ, than to live on in uncertainty 
through the world's most brilliant circles, share its 
brightest honors and revel in its greatest luxury 
and wealth — with a fearful looking for of judgment 
to come. Moralist, my immortal brother, purchase 
of the Redeemer's blood, object of his intercession 
this hour, rise and escape for your life, from your 
refuge of lies ! 

3. Formalism. The formalist is the modern Phari- 
see, the man who will pray by the hour if any body 
will look at him, but never think of such a perform- 
ance in his closet ! Pathways to false refuges cross 
and recross our church aisles, and are paved to our 
very family altars. Lip-service for sight-and-sound 
sake, and from habit ! There are religionists to 
whom the Destroyer has administered the chloro- 
form of creed and caste, making them mumbling 
dreamers in the church. 

You may be punctual at the sanctuary, and observ- 
ant of all the ordinances. You may contribute to 
the support of the gospel. You may say " Our 
church." You may pray in purest rhetoric and from 
loudest lungs. You may rub your hands and re- 
spond lustily to the prayers of others. You may 
wear a serious countenance and pronounce the 



The Hail. 



221 



most orthodox of phrases in the solemnest of tones. 
You may be zealous in your opposition to infidelity. 
You may catechise your children until they are sur- 
feited with theology, and sick of stale platitudes 
which they were never born to digest. You may 
criticise your preacher's sermons and life with un- 
ceasing vigilance. You may go heresy-hunting 
among your brethren, and catch something every 
day. You may be walled in at home with a library 
of the profoundest commentaries that were ever 
bound. 

And yet, after all, that I-am-holier-than-thou pre- 
tension shows through every crevice of your creed. 
The world sees a stiffness in you which it dreads as 
the touch of a corpse. Now, unless your religion 
change you from a mummy to a man, make you 
honest in business, pious behind counters, temperate 
at dinner tables, loyal to your country, affectionate 
to your famil3 T , neighborly at the ballot-box, patient 
in affliction, humble, cheerful and hopeful every- 
where and always ; unless it link you in brotherhood 
to the poorest of God's children ; unless it lead you 
on errands of mercy to hovels and hospitals and 
prisons, as well as to cushioned pews and sacra- 
mental boards ; unless you live Christ on week 



222 



Common Things. 



days as well as worship him on Sabbath days, — then 
3^our religion is spurious, hypocritical, and abhor- 
rent — a refuge of lies ! Its sounding brass and 
tinkling cymbal entice but the giddy-hearted, and 
warn the wise to beware. 

See, above you, in the eternal light, the ponderous 
scales! Ah! God is just. You vainly imagined 
that your name was safe written in the Lamb's 
Book of Life. But that is not a book. Scales ! 
See ! read : |Jgr"" Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin,— 
Thou art w r eighed in the balances and found 
wanting — wanting !" 

The book of gracious offers is closing. Jesus 
speaks sweeter words to the outside sinner than to 
you. The poor publican he blesses, but the for- 
malist he leaves to change his course without a 
pity or a tear. There is no tender word for you in 
all the messages of Christ. He performs no mira- 
cle to heal the Pharisee. Unless you awake b}^ the 
sound of a Saviour's anathemas, you will perish for- 
ever in j r our refuge of lies ! 

4. Spiritualism, What a dreary refuge ! People in 
obscure rooms, in silence, in darkness, listening for- 
sounds out of another world ! Sometimes messages 
seem to be uttered ; but from which world — above, 



The Hail. 



223 



or below ? Would a saint in life desire to commu- 
nicate by the tipping of a wooden table ? On earth, 
among sinners, there is a more dignified and ration- 
al method of communication than this. Even the 
deaf, dumb, and blind have an intelligent and re- 
liable mode of interchanging their thoughts. Has 
an inhabitant of Heaven gone so far back toward 
babyhood as to blunder among table-lids and tilt 
contemptible stands in darkened and desolate rooms, 
in order to be recognized ! Shall the heavenly lin- 
guists forget their own mother tongue ? 

And yet many intellectual persons, good, honest, 
noble-hearted friends, are tempted into this most 
ghostly and gloomy of all hiding places. There are 
promises given of direct communications from 
Heaven. But the messages are often known to be 
false. And the spirits from Satan intrude, and blas- 
pheme, and lie. Are they not all lying spirits, as 
the Scripture says ? If not lying spirits, are there 
not peculiar laws and forces in science — in magnet- 
ism and electricity — which we have not yet discov- 
ered ? For there are sounds in the clouds and in 
the wind w T hich we might as reasonably translate 
into words from departed spirits. 

Spiritualist, be urged, now, abandon all such 



224 



Common Things. 



hollow systems, and accept the plain teaching of 
Jesus. He is the one Mediator — the only one, the 
all-sufficient one — between God and man — the Man, 
Christ Jesus. He speaks to you all you need know 
from the spirit-world. He prepares a place for you, 
where you may see him as he is, and be immortal 
by his side. Here is a message out of Heaven, — it 
comes from your blessed Saviour this moment, 
" Come unto Me, and I will give you rest." "Where 
I am, there you may be also." Only be patient con- 
cerning the glories and associations of the heavenly 
world, and in due time you shall see as you are seen, 
and know as you are known. But for your soul's 
sake, which you imperil, and for your Saviour's 
sake, whom you dishonor by believing the false 
spirits, retreat at once from your refuge of lies. 

5. Sectarianism. There are as many church regis- 
ters as there are church houses in this city. But 
there is only one Lamb's Book of Life for all the 
ransomed sinners of the world. That is the place 
for your name. It is not Methodism, nor Presbyteri- 
anism, nor Lutheranism, nor any other ism of men ; 
but it is the life and power of the Son of God, we 
preach. The different denominations aie but sym- 
metrical and convenient apartments in the one great 



The Hail. 



225 



sanctuary of the Lord. These distinct organizations 
are harmonious counterparts. Yet men separate 
themselves into sects, and magnify their consistent 
differences into conflicting doctrines. They build 
theological walls around themselves, the closer the 
safer, as they vainly imagine ; and they begin, in their 
stifled atmosphere and necessary shade, to doubt 
the orthodoxy of their neighbors. They put colored 
glass in intervening windows, draw down the blinds, 
bolt the doors, and nestle together, as though all 
outside Christendom were turning infidel, and as if 
they, secluded company alone of all the earth, held 
fast the faith once delivered to the saints. Such a 
faith, so monkishly bound, needs a new deliverance ! 

Now, when you find yourself up in arms in de- 
fence of your creed, pause a moment, and consider 
whether in all your life you have ever been so brave 
in defending the Bible. You become excited when 
you hear your Luther, or your Calvin, or your 
Wesley, or your Campbell, criticised ; but you will 
stand silent and unmoved when the name of your 
Jesus is blasphemed ! Unless you can recognize 
prosperity in other churches as heartily as in your 
own, and rejoice at the conversion of sinners under 

anybody's preaching and under any church's roof, 

.15 



226 



Common Things. 



you may write " sectarian" as a fit suffix to your 
name. You have been tempted through self and 
sect to enter a refuge of lies. '1st and 'ism are 
warp and woof of the enemy's tent-covers, and you 
have been deceived. You are attracted by the 
sound of your church-name more than by all the 
cries of Calvary ! Verily you have your warning, 
and must bear the awful consequences of trimming 
your Christianity to a Discipline, or Confession, or 
Catechism, and of wounding your Lord in the 
house of his friends. 

7. Broad-churcliism. This is one of the most open- 
doored and dangerous of all false refuges. It has 
numerous creeds and various names. It makes room 
for Rationalism, Unitarianism, Mormonism, Latitu- 
dinarianism, and all the wild heresies of the world. 
And yet it claims to be the church ! It has its pe- 
riodicals, teeming with transcendental theories, 
boasting of free thought, geologizing on the Bible, 
humanizing Jesus Christ, popularizing Mammon, 
compromising with sin, and trying in a thousand 
ways to make salvation a matter of course, regard- 
less of the name of Jesus and the influences of the 
Holy Spirit. It sneers at the evangelical efforts of 
Young Men's Christian Associations, ridicules re- 



The Hail. 



227 



vivals, depreciates the Sabbath, minifies the sacred 
ordinances, and indulges in sublime contempt for 
the " priests" and " priesthood" of the evangelical 
churches. Much more might be said of Broad- 
churchisin, yet time will not permit, and by this 
brief description it may be known. 

Broad-churchman, you may glory in your liberal- 
ity, but it is a license which broadens into outright 
infidelity at last. You are in a refuge of lies ; and 
your science and reason, 14 falsely so-called," will 
fail you in the trial hour. You must forsake your 
schoolish errors, and come to Christ, who is the way, 
the truth and the life, and learn of him who is 
meek and lowly in heart, and there find rest to your 
soul. 

But all these and other false refuges will be swept 
away. 

When your body is paling and cooling for the 
coffin ; when your life-strings are snapping asunder ; 
when your mental vision becomes the more vivid 
and acute in the glimmering of the eternal light ; 
when your moral sensibilities become the most keen 
and candid ; when the honesty of your soul shakes 
off its last gaudy vail ; — then you will realize what 
a poor protection is your Eeformatism, your Moral- 



228 



Common Things. 



ism, your Formalism, your Spiritualism, your Seo 
tarianism, and your Broad-churchism, at the dread- 
ful hour when you are summoned to the judg- 
ment. Will you anticipate that awful day and take 
refuge in Christ ? 

When the lightning of conviction flashes upon 
your mind, and the thundering dirges of guilt roll 
and re-echo through all the chambers of your soul ; 
when the dashing hail of God's justice cuts through 
your last false and Aims} 7 sheltering, and chills you 
trembling from your miserable refuge, then you will 
feel what you have often heard and sung — 

" Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in Theej" 

but the feeling may have no saving faith beneath it, 
and the words, unsung, unprayed, unbelieved, only 
felt, will be of no avail. 

Wealth is nothing, honor is nothing, reputation is 
nothing, everything is nothing to the awakened 
sinner. Philosophy stands olf with arms folded, a 
cold-hearted stranger now. Theology has no balm 
for the sick and dying heart. The very Bible is 
dim ; and prayer itself is dumb. Hymns are but 
wailing sound. Tears freeze and fall as ice. All — 
all — unless Jesus be present — all are as a refuge of 



The Hail. 



229 



lies. The pitiless hail sweeps in and cuts the last, 
last refuge to fragments. The ice-balls beat and 
bound and rebound in horrible sound upon its ruined 
foundations, and there is no salvation! 

But let Jesus appear. Let the sinner but touch 
the hem of his garment, and the storm lulls ; the 
hail of justice melts into drops of merciful rain ; the 
dark clouds fade away; the sun paints rainbows 
over the departing gloom ; the heavens are clear 
and calm; all the air is redolent with fragrance 
from the trees that grow and bloom forever by the 
River of Life. Every sorrow is smiled into glory, 
and every trouble thrills out in a song, for the 
weary soul has found a safe refuge at last. 



IV. 



THE DRESS. 

"Bring forth the best robe and put it on him." 

Luke xy. 22. 

ORE than three hundred millions of dollars 

are spent in this country every year for 

dry goods, to be wrought into clothing 

according to the fashion. And yet the people are 

ever hoping for changes which require new cuts 

and colors, and increased expenditures of the 

money which somebody earns, before the fabrics 

already worn show any signs of decay. Not many 

garments are worn out, except by the patient poor, 

and those unfortunate persons who are glad to 

take as charity the cast-off apparel of their more 

fastidious neighbors. 

As in the matter of food, extra millions of money 

are squandered for that which is not bread — for the 

luxuries of Epicurean tables — brain-softening and 

body-enervating delicacies and poisons ; and, as in 

the matter of drink, millions more are worse than 
230 




The Dress. 



231 



wasted for that which satisfieth not, but giveth its 
color in the cup, and leaveth its leprous ugliness 
on the face ; so again, in the matter of clothing, the 
tyrant Fashion, next in cruelty to Appetite, roba 
the American people of one half their money, two 
thirds of their common sense, and three fourths of 
their virtue, leaving but fractional humanity to be 
worked into the commercial, scientific, literary, and 
religious advances of the times. Owing to these 
illegitimate draughts on income, reason and health, 
the Lord Jesus Christ, in his saving approaches 
toward men and women, seems as a picture or 
phantom rather than the real Brother and Redeemer 
that he is. 

Our blessed Master-and-Servant when he walked 
among the people as one of them, talking and 
sympathizing with all, regardless of condition or 
circumstance, comprehending the tendencies and 
temptations of all, asked three questions which 
cover the thoughts of every individual who has 
grown into maturity in the ages before and since. 
" What shall we eat ? What shall we drink ? Where- 
withal shall we be clothed?" Now, these questions 
all pertain to necessary things ; and Jesus himself 
grants that they do. For true religion always has 



232 



Common Things. 



reference to the body as well as the soul ; to tempo- 
ral as well as to spiritual concerns. Christianity can 
never be reduced to a mere sounding-shell of words 
and tones for Sunday, and then left hollow and 
silent as ether six days out of seven. There is, 
therefore, great meaning in the Saviour's words, 
"Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have 
need of these things." And that is the very best 
reason why we should not be over anxious about 
them. If God care for a sparrow, will he not care 
for a man? If he clothe the grass and the lily, will 
he not provide raiment for his children? 

Yet how we worry ourselves and others about 
what we shall wear ! How many vain and envious 
thoughts circle about intrusively on this subject ! 
Indeed, it would seem that Fashion herself, alarmed 
at the extravagance of her devotees, has reduced 
all her measures, shortening, contracting, curtailing, 
compressing, and belittleing every article of ap- 
parel, just to see how many infinitessimal specimens 
of humanity she can carry on her thumb ! But all 
her garments are fading in texture, and changeful 
in stjie. The elegant dress of to-day has more 
than half a chance to be thrown aside as a ridicu- 
lous rag to-morrow. The lack of cloth in a coat 



The Dress. 



233 



for November, would be accredited to a lack of 
brains in its wearer in the equal temperature of the 
succeeding March. The regiments of buttons 
drawn up in parade on the cloak of a fashionist in 
autumn, might readily be mistaken for the idle 
beadwork of Choctaw Indians the very next winter. 
You see and you know that the demands of this 
idol of Fashion, even in the centers of our Christen- 
dom, are obeyed as slavishly and almost as suffer- 
ingly as the edicts of the Hindoo Juggernaut who 
tramps his hideous heels on the bodies of his 
worshipers. 

All this "world's mantles, beyond those of mere 
good comfort and good taste, are but flimsy fan- 
cies at best. For it is not enough that the body 
should be clothed. The soul must have a covering. 
Better that the body should shiver in the cold, 
or bronze in the heat, for want of raiment, than 
that the soul should stalk through this world 
naked, the pity of angels and God. 

But where is there a dress for the soul ? Let 
us open one of the world's wardrobes, look through 
a few of its apartments and see what they contain. 
To be sure : Here are a half dozen robes already 



234 



Common Things. 



in view. Let us examine them. A glance at each 
one will suffice for the present. 

This one is Moralism ; but it has been cut from 
a remnant, and would not fit an infant and can no< 
be stretched to cover an adult sinner. It is worth 
less. 

Here is Sectarianism ; but it is a narrow head 
band only, with just enough fringe to drop over 
the eyes of the wearer, and appear as beams in 
the eyes of a brother. It can not be woven into 
any thing that will cover the body. Let it drop, 
and let the moths eat it, for they do God service 
in devouring its every shred. 

Another is Formalism ; but it is a patched and 
spotted robe, like Joseph's coat of many colors. 
To even touch it will stain the hands with blood ; 
and to wear it, is worse than to wear grave-clothes 
alive ! 

And here is a strange-looking one—Unitarian- 
ism ; but it is woof of a web that has no warp, 
and would fall to pieces in the wearing, like loose, 
hard-twisted threads wrapped crosswise round a 
shivering form. 

And still another — Universalism ; but it is over 
large in its pattern, for being cut for all, it sets 



The Dress. 



235 



gracefully upon none. It is like an old tent 
canvas washed up by the flood, to be drawn ovel 
a man and fastened with cables ! 

That is all in this wardrobe. Let us close the 
door. Xo : there is something else here, exquisite- 
ly filmy and fine. We can scarcely see it. It 
seems to be but the shadow of a robe, for it can 
not be felt, and would be no better than a spider's 
web in a tempest. This is Spiritualism ; we had 
better leave it among the ghosts ! 

«!< t^Z 5$i ^ )fC >ji »^ jJC 

But what shall the soul put on ? What will hide 
its nakedness, and shield it from the heat of } T outh- 
ful passion, and from the frost of declining years ? 
Outward adornment may bring reputation to the 
body; but the soul must have something more 
enduring than reputation. It must have character. 
Character is not a fashionable commodity. It is 
not issued from any social or ecclesiastical metro- 
polis ; it is not cut out of broadcloth or silk, nor 
surpliced with ribbons, as a dress for the. sake of 
effect on others than the wearer thereof! Reputa- 
tion, the body's garniture, is the product of tailors' 
and milliners' skill ; but they can not measure nor 
fit an immortal soul ! Silk, linen, worsted, cotton, 



236 



Common Things. 



bones, brass, dust, straw, hair, and paper — these 
are the elements of reputation; and for these, in 
their several combinations, the people struggle as 
if for ver3 r life. 

But character is composed of principle, thought, 
feeling, desire, emotion, ambition, and purpose ; 
and these are threaded and blended day by day to 
the Christly model which shall adorn the soul for- 
ever. Every good man's character is a pure and 
beautiful dress. It is a seamless robe. It is not 
lapped and whipped together by any sect-patented 
sewing machine, but woven — woven by every pulse- 
beat of life out of such things as love, patience, 
meekness, gentleness and hope ; and smiles and 
tears are wrought into wondrous and beautiful 
adornment through every part. It is not a fashion- 
able garment, because it is not a mere imitation of 
any thing. Every thing fashionable must neces- 
sarily be shaped and textured like something else, 
unoriginal, unsatisfying, and imperfect. Fashion* 
ists are like young pupils in school, writing lines of 
leaning letters across the pages of a copy-book 
" Many men of many minds; many birds of many 
kinds — but not a man or a bird of the many evei 
interests the mind of a writer of such copies ! 



The Dress. 



237 



The soul-garment is gracefully adapted to its 
wearer, and is always appropriate, chaste and be- 
coming. Clothed in this, apologies and embarrass- 
ments are covered thenceforth; and its possessor 
needs never to say, " Please excuse me this morn- 
ing; I didn't expect to be caught in such a dress." 
The soul-dress does for working before breakfast, 
just as well as for entertaining company after tea. 
It is as appropriate in the kitchen as in the parlor ; 
for Marthas as well as Marys may wear it and be 
Deloved sisters still. It is the same in the pew as 
in the pulpit, and at a wedding as at a funeral. It 
never trails in the mud, at a father's expense, to 
trip strangers in the streets. It is always neat and 
clean, and everywhere radiant in its every thread, 
needless of artificial ornaments which are but ac- 
knowledged envies, as often as admirations, of the 
beauties they burlesque. 

Away back in the olden time (see Exodus xxxv. 
25), "All the women that were wise-hearted did 
spin with their hands, and brought that which 
they had spun, both of blue, and purple, and scarlet, 
and fine linen." Now, in these days of modern 
invention and facility for handiwork, if men and 
women, by their dress, did but indicate something 



238 



Common Things. 



of their own individual industry and taste, then 
there might be some excuse for display ; but as it 
is, all of us, less or more, are but the walking 
advertisements of somebody's goods, and some- 
body's genius. 

But not so with the raiment of the soul. Every 
true Christian reflects the character with whish 
heaven has mantled him. He has put on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and the adaptation and adornment 
are complete. Like the woman whom John saw in 
Revelation, clothed with the sun, 11 The moon under 
her feet, and upon her head a crown of stars," so 
every true disciple of Christ is clothed in light and 
glory. 

The moon to-night glows in the same silvery white 
raiment which she has worn in her walks across 
the firmament since the first song of the morning 
stars. And yet the moon of herself is but a body 
of dark material, cold and desolate, without an 
atmosphere. But she moves in the light of the sun 
which shines on her bosom, though at the time the 
sun is hidden from us. The moon has put on the 
sun for a garment, and, for beauty and majesty, she 
is crowned Queen of the Night. Her royal vesture 
is fado^ss forever, and her pathway is henceforth 



The Dress. 



239 



paved with glittering diamonds. And so, too, 
every twinkling star is robed in equal radiance by 
the beams of light. The investiture is infinite. 
There is a enough for all. Each one of the number- 
less host has put on the best robe in all the sunlit 
universe of God. So, again, this hard old earth of 
ours puts on the sun. In spring-time, a robe of 
emerald, jeweled with brilliant flowers, snowy blos- 
soms, and gleaming waters ; and in winter-time, a 
shroud of burial white, to be lifted away before the 
power and glory of vernal resurrection. All this 
wondrous beauty comes out of the one source, and 
is put on the moon, the stars, and the earth, as 
Heaven's best robe for the circling years. 

And so Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, comes 
to every believer, wherever he moves and has his 
being, however rough and hard and dark his 
nature, and clothes him with his own light, and 
gives him, through faith and patience and prayer, a 
character pure and fadeless as his own. This is the 
best robe in our Heavenly Father's House. It 
strengthens and beautifies by age. It is broidered 
by the touch of the Holy Spirit. It is ever new, 
and offered free as sunlight to all. Every soul may 
have this beautiful raiment, wear it as ample pro- 



240 



Common Things. 



tection through this pitiless world, and stand glori- 
fied in it at last in the kingdom above. 

Adam and Eve, driven out of Eden where they 
sinned, tried to make a dress of fig-leaves ; but 
God, whom they had disobeyed, like a Father, 
clothed them himself with the skins of the animals 
which they had offered in sacrifice for their sin. 
The coverings came from the slain animals. You 
see, in this, an emblem of the slain Christ, showing 
in the \ery beginning of sin, and in the putting on 
of the very first dress, that human works could not 
procure pardon. And to this day, all that man can 
do of himself are but fig-leaf excuses. Nothing less 
than the perfect righteousness w r hich comes by the 
death of Jesus, our Lord, can cover the soul. This 
is the best robe for the sinner. 

Our Saviour, in the parable from which the 
text is selected, most impressively illustrates this 
thought. 

There was a young man who became dissatisfied 
with his father's house and company, demanded 
his portion of the estate, and, receiving it, hastened 
away to spend it in riotous living among strangers 
and harlots. He wasted his money, ruined his 
health, and soon became such a beggar and beast 



The Dress. 



243 



that lie herded with the swine and coveted their 
husks. But in his utter wretchedness he came to 
his senses ; he thought of his neglected and insulted 
father, his comfortable home, his innocent child- 
hood. ; and with a penitent resolve he said, " I will 
arise and go to my father." First- the thought, 
then the word, now the act — he starts. He trudges 
on in his rags, poor fellow, miserable, forlorn, 
humiliated ! But he feels that the whole universe 
has no such sacred retreat as the dear old home of 
his youth. ! if those doors are but open yet ; if 
the father still lives and loves ; if his own failing 
strength will but bear him so far, — all shall be well. 
He presses on. He nears the familiar spot. But 
long before he sees his father, his father sees him ! 
O how a father pitieth his child ! He did not wait 
for the son to come all the way in uncertainty ; he 
ran out to meet him ; he threw his arms about the 
neck of the poor mistaken boy, and kissed him! 
He brings him into the house, and seeing the torn 
and tattered garments of the wanderer, and his 
bruised and languid body suffering for raiment, he 
commands his servants, " Bring forth the best robe 
and put it on him. 11 These badges of poverty must 
give place, not only for something better, such as 



2U 



Common Things. 



servants, or even unfallen sons may wear, but for 
the first robe — the best robe — the richest robe in 
the father's house, — full assurance of re-instaternent 
to original position and privilege at home. 

Imagine the scene. Says the father, " Bring 
forth the best robe and put it on him ; and put a 
ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet ; and bring 
hither the fatted calf, and kill it ; and let us eat 
and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is 
alive again; he was lost, and is found." How the 
gloom of the old mansion breaks away ? Music 
and dancing make the chambers ring and re-echo 
with joy. Why ! it is as if a King's son had come 
home with his bride, instead of a poor prodigal 
alone. But a penitent is better than a prince. 

The lost is found. The dead is alive. "Look at 
my son," says the father, "see his mother — long 
missing from the family circle, sainted in glory — 
see her back now in spirit ; she smiles and weeps 
in the features of my boy. He is my son. He is 
part of my soul. I have prayed for this ; and 
behold what an answer! He is robed in my best 
robe. On his finger is the seal of his pardon. On 
his feet, shoes, that he may walk unlame whitherso- 
ever he ¥ r ill henceforth. His hunger is satisfied 



The Dress. 



245 



with plenty. He is safe and welcome at home 
again ; and the great mistake of his life shall be 
forgotten forever. Let the music ring out to the 
fields, and the ecstasy increase and abound I" 

Yonder is a poor, wandering sinner. See him ! 
He is wasting his money and his manhood in 
intemperance, dissipation and crime. He is sink- 
ing from cherished social attachments down toward 
the herds of the vicious and the vulgar. His gar- 
ments are ragged, unsightly and defiled. He can 
not mingle in the company which once greeted him 
and caressed him till his money was gone, and his 
clothes became threadbare and soiled. He has 
followed his own wild will until it has led him from 
home, from friends, and from business, down to 
the dens of infamy, vileness and death. In his 
heart he feels that he has already gone down to a 
level with the beasts that perish, and shall sink 
infinitely below them unless his steps be quickly 
retraced. Listen to his resolve sobbing up from 
the depths of his trouble, just now, " I will arise, I 
will arise and go to my Father." 

Yes, although he may have no companions, no 
friends, no counselors — nothing but . the dumb 
devourers of husks and grovelers in filth about 



246 



Common Things. 



him ; yet, after all, he has a Father — a Father ! " I 
will arise and go." He starts, there, now! See 
him : His own strength is nothing but blundering 
weakness. His raiment is nothing but rags. Ho 
doesn't look like anybody's human son — he is so 
utterly impoverished. But no matter, if on all the 
returning journey not a being may recognize him 
or care for him ; he has a Father, and a pitying eye 
will see him afar off, and he need not go trembling 
and knocking at the dear home door. He will be 
met just because he has no friend ; he will be wel- 
comed with a kiss just because nobody else cares 
for him ; and he will be led into the house just 
because he is an outcast ; and just because he is 
ragged and unsightly, the command will ring 
through every chamber of the heavenly mansion, 
until all the angels hear the rich music tones of a 
Father's voice: " Bring forth the best robe and put 
it on him." And with the robe the harps will be 
brought forth, and there will be more rejoicing in 
Heaven over " one sinner who repenteth, than over 
ninety and nine who went not astray." 

The dear Saviour, who once stood condemned, 
but innocent, clad in a robe of cast-off purple 
at Pilate's bar, has, by his death, prepared a robe 



The Dress. 



247 



of righteousness, spotless and white, for every 
guilty soul that will come and accept it. Sinner, 
rise, confess, come home to God, by the door of his 
church — put on the Lord Jesus Christ; and just 
because you are nobody to the world, and nothing to 
yourself, the Father of spirits will own you as his 
child, and array you in the seamless robe of 
Christ's righteousness this very hour. You have 
worn the tatters of a prodigal long enough. Come, 
and be clothed upon with apparel which indicates 
an accepted son. Come, and be admitted to the 
joyous feast. 

Backslider, come home. You have forfeited 
your beautiful estate ; your mantle of acceptance 
in Jesus has been wantonly cast aside at the beck- 
oning of Mammon and Fashion ; you have sacri- 
ficed character to gain reputation; you may be 
friendless, homeless, and herded with the vulgar 
throng, feeding on husks and shivering in wintry 
rains; but if you repent, return, and do your first 
works over again, your Father will meet you on 
the way, command a feast and sweet music, and 
mantle you once more with the first robe — the best 
robe — the more than royal robe of the righteous- 
ness of Christ. 



243 



Common Things. 



0, I see you coming home, weary brother — 
coming home ; and I hear already, in far, far richer 
than organ music, the voice of a Father's welcome, 
" Bring forth the best robe." The Forgiving One 
waits to clothe you with the character of Christ 
the moment you are willing that your ragged repu- 
tation should be cast away. Prepared and at 
hand for you is the beautiful raiment, pure and 
white as the untossed snow. When Christ is 
clothed upon you, your words and actions will be 
as ornaments of gold on your spotless robe. 
Truth will be your girdle, making you strong and 
ready in doing good ; and obedience will put wings 
to your feet, as a preparation of the gospel of 
peace. 

The Israelites had garments which faded not nor 
waxed old for forty years. But this best robe will 
never decay. "You will no more weary of it than 
a cloud wearies of its rainbow, or the moon and 
stars of their sun." This robe, wrought from eternal 
Truth and Love before the world was, and yet for 
ever new, put on in your moment of sorrow for- 
sin, is the same which shall royally adorn you in 
the presence of God and his holy angels in heaven. 

You who have already returned from your wan- 



The Dress. 



249 



clerings in sin and are now wearing the righteous- 
ness of Jesus Christ, 0, keep your robe unspotted 
by the world. If you wear it to the theater, the 
ball-room, or the opera, it will be tarnished. If 
you are found as a patron or a guest in Satan's 
company, and touch fraternal hands with Sin, 
however gloved and gentle it may be, your robe 
will be stained, and you will be as pitiable going 
about the street as if you wore garments dyed in 
a brother's blood. But you may wear it on er- 
rands of mercy to cellars, to garrets, to mines, and 
to prisons, and to destitute homes among the orphans 
and widows, and its glorious white shall shine all the 
more. 

Yonder, in the heights of heaven, — see ! Who 
are those arrayed in white, that stand before the 
throne, singing and waving their palms? They 
who were once sinful, lost, ruined ; wasted in Ufa, 
ragged in body, frozen in heart. But now, 

"Upon the sea of glass they stand 
Tn shining robes of light: 
The harps of God are in their hand — 
They praise him day and night. 

They climbed the steep ascents of heaven, 

Through peril, toil, and pain ; 
0, God ! to us may grace be given 

To follow in their train." 



V. 



EVERY-DAY GLORY. 



" Whether, therefore, ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever 
ye do, do all to the glory of Goil." 1 Cor. x. 31. 



|HE most uncommon thing in this world is 



life, that even discipleship in Jesus is made to be 
embarrassing by unauthorized forms, exactions and 
restraints. 

The gospel gives liberty in the reception of its 
truths, and gladness in the performance of its 
duties ; but creeded religions cramp the heart and 
confuse the whole life by unscriptural profession- 
alities in outward things. Confessions and Disci- 
plines are thrust in between the individual and the 
Bible, saying all over their uninspired pages, do 
this just so, and go just yonder, or stay just here 
or there, and copy the tone and pronounce the 
phrase of this man or that man, wear this or that 
garment, and be a Christian according to a human 
model. Be as much like somebody else as possible, 




common sense. Most people are so given 
over to affectation in social and religious 



250 



E VER Y-DA Y GL OR Y. 



251 



so that your orthodoxy may measure up to the 
fixed standard, not of Christ and the gospel, but 
of some Council and its creed. 

Now, no man can be religious by letter. Chris- 
tianity is not a material that can be wrought into 
cloaks, cut and made up and worn according to 
the fashion of this sect or that sect. It is rather an 
impulse of heart, an impression of spirit, a con- 
stant vigilance of conscience, a high range of light 
and love and liberty which controls all conditions 
and adapts itself to all possible circumstances of 
the outward life, infusing itself afresh into every 
new duty, just as the days come new and open 
their opportunities for doing good. The thoughts 
and words and actions of yesterday will not meet 
the peculiar demands of to-day ; nor will the duties 
of to-day be duplicated to-morrow. No trial of 
the present hour can be adjourned to a probable 
temptation of the next hour. Instead of fore-calcu- 
lated conformity to the rules and regulations of 
theology, the Christian may better express a happy 
and useful life by giving heed to such words as 
these : " Whether, therefore, ye eat, or drink, or 
whatsover ye do, do all to the glory of God." 

We eat and drink to sustain and strengthen the 



252 



Common Things. 



bodj r . And any kind of eating or drinking that fails 
to benefit the body is inglorious. A neglect to 
eat sufficient food or to drink sufficient beverage, 
as well as over-eating and over-drinking, is intem- 
perance ; or, to partake of proper quantities at im- 
proper times, is injurious. Eating and drink- 
ing are not merely to gratify appetite, but to build 
and beautify the body, with men's good and God's 
glory ever in view. 

But the body, to be healthy and beautiful, must 
have other aids besides eating and drinking. It 
must have exercise. The plants are fed from the 
soil and nurtured by rains and dews ; but they 
would not grow strong unless they were tossed and 
toughened by the agitating winds. They laugh and 
wave about and bow and bend, gaining strength 
and beauty every hour. Exercise is a necessity for 
the growth of their stalks, and for the budding and 
blooming of their branches. 

Animals not only eat and drink, but skip and 
hop, and run, and leap, and take physical exercise. 
Nature requires it, and all creation responds. The 
clouds, the rivers, the oceans, all play, and sweep, 
and roll in living, self-perpetuating power. 

So human beings, to be healthy and complete, 



Ever y-da y Glory. 



253 



are not only to cat proper food — the simpler the 
better, and to drink wholesome beverage — the 
nearer pure water the better; — but they are to take 
proper and sufficient bodily exercise — the more 
free and easy the better. It will not do foi 
thin-faced, stoop-shouldered, tight-laced, dyspeptic 
Christians to whine their melancholy objections to 
physical education. The "whatsoever ye do" of 
the text indicates that there are human attentions 
and actions besides eating and drinking. And 
here common sense insists on a wholesome system 
of recreations and amusements for the human 
body, as well as a perception of accountability 
and obedience for the human soul. You know we 
are to glorify God, not merely by our spirits, but 
by our bodies, which are his. And any occupation 
which disciplines and develops the physical man, 
thus strengthens and beautifies the temple where 
the Holy Spirit deigns to dwell, ^so wholesale de- 
nunciation of amusements is consistent with the re- 
quirements and charities of the gospel. Because 
some men sometimes run races for money, shall all 
men resolve to ivalk henceforth ! Because some 
men have been known to gamble by the chances of 
ball, shall everybody else relinquish that manly 



254 



Common Things. 



amusement, and promise never to eat apples or 
study the stars again, because they are round, like 
balls ! Or, suppose some men should walk for a 
wager, shall all the Christian people in the world 
get down on their hands and knees and crawl on 
every errand evermore ! 

To be sure, Paul says " If meat make my brother 
to offend I will eat no flesh while the world stand- 
eth, lest I make my brother to offend." But he 
did not risk requisite bread on his brother. Paul 
would not have starved his body to conciliate the 
prejudice of any disciple. He would have held on 
to his loaf, and let an over-sensitive sectarian go. 

Paul never married. But because he preferred 
single life, shall every other man remain un- 
married ? He but expresses that individuality on 
non-essentials which the gospel recognizes in 
every believer. He stands firm on the central 
principles, and squares his conduct by the distinc- 
tive doctrines of Christianity ; for these very 
central obligations are made grand and glorious 
because they insure the right of private judgment, 
and invite the exercise of common sense, on all 
points of conscience. 

Paul's frequent reference to the athletic sports 



E very-day Glory. 



255 



and exercises of the Greeks by way of illustration 
of spiritual advances, without a word of disap- 
proval or regret, would indicate, that, in his day, it 
was not considered heterodox to have a sound and 
healthy body ? The idea that a sanctified soul can 
dwell only in an effeminate frame, look only out of 
hollow eyes, and utter itself only in sepulchral 
tones, belongs to some other age and system than 
those of the gospel. The glad tidings of great 
joy, heralded by angels over Bethlehem in loud, 
exultant tones, were never designed to sound from 
the minor keys of human lamentation. The angels' 
song should never become the people's complaint. 
It is joy to all — fullness of joy forevermore, and 
sings into every true believer's soul an impulse to 
do any thing and everj r thing for the glory of God. 

Christ's religion comes to men with adaptations 
to the minutest details of daily life. It takes such 
possession of the whole man, body, soul and spirit, 
as to make the most of him here, elevate him 
to immortality hereafter, and prompt him upward 
in heaven eternally. 

The only way of gaining the kingdom, is to accept 
the gracious invitation, walking thitherward by 
faith in the perfect and proffered righteousness of 



256 



Common Things. 



Christ — doing his blessed will in all things — reach- 
ing out welcoming arms to all, and speaking good 
cheer to every heart. The glad tidings of salvation 
are to sound in every ear, ringing to saddest souls 
the music of peace, and love, and joy, and good 
will, until all the daily doings of the people shall 
redound in glory to God. In social life, every 
friendship; in business, every bargain ; in politics, 
every ballot; in art, every picture and song; in 
science, every discovery and triumph ; in manufac- 
tures, every invention and implement; in literature, 
every letter and voice; in religion — which is the 
one great name for all the impulses, methods, and 
movements of every human life — in religion, every 
thought, and word, and action, should be for the 
good of men, which is always the glory of God. 

Some persons act toward the claims of religion 
as though it were a fine thing for ministers and 
deacons, for Sabbath days, baptisms, marriages, 
sick beds and funerals. But they imagine that it 
might jumble things considerabty on week days; 
in the banks and counting-rooms ; in oil specula- 
tions ; in railroad and mining stocks ; in trading, 
marketing, and the ordinary affairs of daily life. 
It is feared that a close application of this rule in 



E VER Y-DA Y GL OR Y. 



257 



common things might spoil a good bargain, take a 
story off a handsome mansion, take a second or 
two off the speed of a fancy horse, reduce the tex- 
ture of one's garments, clear away a few luxuries 
from the table, increase the tax bill on certain com- 
modities, and that it would be rather awkward, in 
the public street, or in the middle of an office 
speculation, to stop and ask, "Am I trading, build- 
ing, driving, eating, or doing this or that, for the 
glory of God, or for my own convenience?" And 
yet, withal, the principle of the text is eminently 
practical. Honor worked up toward God and out 
toward our fellow-men from the regularly recurring 
duties, and the new ones of every day, would 
bring benedictions on all. 

In a building, the outer superstructure attracts 
the eye ; the foundation is hidden. A tree's leaf 
makes more noise than its trunk ; and its roots are 
all concealed beneath the ground. Yet the tree 
shakes off its leaves each autumn. But it holds its 
roots forever ; and it even bares itself of foliage 
when winter comes, in order that the roots may be 
covered and nurtured below, and so glorify its 
Maker and itself in the future spring- 
So in society. It is not the apparently great 
17 



258 



Common Things. 



men, doing public things, who bless the world. 
Not many succeed in attracting attention and 
winning applause. Men do not all run to leaf, 
merely to get up to that green thinness which 
rustles for a summer, and then crisps and falls to 
the ground as a mere nurturer of the strong but 
modest roots below, that live and grow through all 
the years. 

It is no evidence of real greatness to get into 
high elevations, to work on to public platforms, 
into legislatures, into pulpits, or even to the Presi- 
dential chair. God's universal plan is to keep the 
individual humble that he may be useful and happy. 
Each one is made for all. Yet every soul is a 
greater creation than a sun. You are appointed 
here, I yonder, somebody else between, or beyond, 
and each one of us must bear his own accountabili- 
ty, living and working according to our chances, 
doing every thing for a purpose — man's general 
good, and God's especial glory. Every individual 
in the race is a free agent, and in religion as well 
as in all other relations, should be recognized as a 
unit, eipial in will and right, to every other. There 
is a Methodism in Christianity that votes, and 
works with a purpose, not to glorify men by 



Every-day Glory. 259 



making them "lords over God's heritage," but 
rather to honor their individuality, and to prompt 
them to discharge every duty as it defines itself, to 
God's glory and not to man's. 

0, it is standing in his place, however lowly, 
even unseen and unheard, and working for God's 
glory just there, that makes a man happy and sur- 
rounds him with ministering spirits ! Go up to the 
Cathedral spire, across the way, and look down 
from its iron cross, and you shall not be able to 
distinguish who are tall and who are short men 
walking the street, or who wear fine and who 
coarse-textured garments. So when any Christian 
stands by the true cross of Jesus, and looks down 
upon the world, — all social, political and ecclesi- 
astical elevations sink to a level, and men are 
judged more by the outward circlings of loving 
hands, and to and fro walkings, as they go about 
doing good. These are the movements the angels 
see — not your imaginary shelvings in the bureaus 
of society ; but your real goings am 1 workings 
among your fellow-men out in the world. Getting 
up on mere man-made scaffoldings, is getting up to 
tumble down again. The brick tower and its iron 
cross are to be taken down from the Cathedral — 



260 



Common Things. 



they already threaten to fall. There is a better, 
grander elevation ; it is that of being attracted by 
the power of Him who was once lifted up to draw 
all men unto Himself. Waiting for this influence, 
using it as it appeals to the heart, responding to all 
its requirements, we shall do all things — whether 
we eat, or drink, or whatsoever we do — for God's 
glory, and yet be glorified ourselves. 

The Gospel was never designed to be un-Bibled 
and made into lettered catalogues of musts and 
must-nots. " The letter killeth ; the spirit giveth 
life." " The restraints of religion do not lie along 
the Christian's pathway as so many roseless thorns 
to pierce and pain us at every step." Chris- 
tianity does not require us to be forever looking 
after the faults and failures of others, in order that 
we may know exactly what things not to do. It is 
not a list of uneasy negatives. It is not a system 
arranged to push or drive by rearward forces. No 
man, since grace and truth were revealed in Jesus 
Christ, was ever scolded or scared any nearer 
heaven. The thunder of Sinai threatened and 
made men tremble; but there is another Mount, 
though not so high and dark and awful, whose 



E VER Y-DA Y GL OR Y. 



261 



summit held a cross, and He who was lifted up 
thereon draws all men unto him ! The blood of 
Calvary is greater than the lightning of Sinai. 
Henceforth, love is mightier than precept. Hence- 
forth religious life is not so much a form as a 
service — a service which is the highest liberty 
because it is emancipation in Christ Jesus, who 
makes his followers free indeed. 

We are not obliged to pass on in our disciple- 
ship with book in hand, or mortal confessor in 
sight, reading a ceremony, or listening to a sound, 
or ruminating on the published sins of other peo- 
ple, else we should commit new ones ourselves so 
rapidly and unexpectedly that the most orthodox 
creed-arranger would become bewildered in the 
attempt to classify them. The religion of Christ 
does not annoy us with mere formal technicalities. 
It says, " Whatsoever ye do, do all for God's glory." 
There are no chronometer-gauged exactions to 
goad us to duty as a miserly creditor's constables 
dun a poor debtor for dues. No books of faith 
and service outside the Bible are worthy the per- 
manence of stereotype plates to be printed from. 
No true man who recognizes his own individual 
accountability for deeds done in the body (not for 



262 



Common Things. 



words pronounced or unpronounced from the 
creed) — no true man can live in these grand re- 
publican years with any ecclesiasticism ahold of 
him ; drilling and driving him as a machine. The 
Scriptures of Divine Truth do not require that my 
soul's worship shall be a strict duplicate of the 
worship of somebody else's soul. Neither is my 
work to be estimated by the number of chips and 
shavings at the bench of the robuster brother 
who has double the muscle that God has given 
to me.* 



* The hidden power of Jesus Christ in a soul, or in any associa- 
tion of souls, will turn and overturn, fuse, change, expand, refine, 
and elevate all the elements of thought, and character, and growth. 
The quickening Spirit will pervade the entire life of a man, or a 
church community of men, and impress the image of God on every 
heart, and produce a moral change as great as a new creation. This 
is the genius of the Christian religion. It regenerates the world, 
as leaven operates upon the meal, by the law of silent, outcircling 
influence. 

Christianity is not a thing of forms, lettered in books, imaged in 
pictures, sounded from pulpits or organs ; it is not a list of affirma- 
tives and negatives, to be studied by the eye and the ear; it is not a 
certain area of liberties, with an invisible dead-line drawn around it, 
beyond which no prisoner of faith must wander or blunder on the 
peril of his soul ; it is not an empty mold, into which a man must 
submit to be melted and poured as so much liquid, and left to cool 
into a definite shape, with the name of his sect cast into him and 
hardened on to him in the process ! Christianity, or, in other words, 
the kingdom of heaven, is " like unto leaven which a woman took 



E VER Y-DA Y GL OR Y. 



263 



Christianity gets deeper into a man than his 
clothes or his skin. It does a nobler thing to a 
man than to bow and bend and halt and turn 
and shove him hither and thither in the crooked 
grooves of some blunderer who lived in the dim 
ages long before the w r ood of the cross began to 
grow. It has a grander mission than merely to 
take charge of the seen and heard of a man ; it 
lodges deep in his inmost soul, and works out 
from that center, until the world not only sees and 
hears, but knows and feels that he " has been with 
Jesus and learned of him." 

I may subscribe to a system of rules, and may 
be as exact in my observance of them as a clock is 
in ticking its swinging monotonies all day long 
and all night through, and, just like the clock, be 
only running down all the w 7 hiie. The gospel is 
a marvel in its freedom from all non-essential 
sectarianisms which any mimic of a man might 
observe to the very shadow of a letter without 
being a spark the brighter or a degree the better 
for his trouble. It is time the church had grown 

and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened." It 
is a heavenly spirit, inwardly planted, working out, and not a world- 
made frame work, clamping in ! 



264 



Common Things. 



out of the childhood ages of the world ; time that 
she waked up in the new morning this side the 
long night of ritualistic shades and symbols, to the 
light and liberty of the Saviour come and risen. 
The Christian system, simple but sublime, infused 
by the impulses of the promised Spirit of all truth, 
lifts men out of the deep-worn channels, and places 
them on elevations of light and glory from whence 
vast and beautiful horizons sweep around, beaming 
and glowing with living workers for God and man. 
There are growths from minority to manhood in 
the gospel, and equal suffrage for all and forever. 
And in this liberated manhood, as free agents, 
all disciples are enjoined to do something ; and 
w T ith freemen, all duties, opportunities and privi- 
leges are girdled by the broad term " whatsoever* 
This brings men face to face with the questions 
of the times in w T hich they live, and appeals to 
common sense, that first essential to a vigorous, 
useful, and happy Christian expeiience. 

* ^ * * * * 

Every-day religion is what the churches need, 
and what individuals should more emphatically 
express. For the Saviour himself came to men by 
way of their calling and condition ; he went out 



E VER Y-DA Y GL OR Y. 



265 



among the people, and found a pulpit anywhere 
and everywhere — by the wayside, in a boat, at a 
well-curb, on the mount, at a wedding, at a grave, 
on the street, in the temple, in the field — wherever 
he met sinners, there did he open his lips and 
speak "as never man spake. " In our more modern 
and convenient customs, religion is calendared by 
our programmes of business, and the sweet spirit 
of Christ's life is shut away from the avenues of 
trade and work and daily thought. The object of 
prayer and social meetings should be that business 
men and all people may receive and radiate the 
gospel light in all its impartial bounty and beauty, 
until eveiy believer may feel that his ordinary 
duties are Divine ordinances, and be as happy in 
work as in worship, and be as eminently Christian 
in week-day business as in Sabbath profession. 

There are those ready to object to these " extra- 
ordinary efforts" as sensational. They should not 
be thought e^?*a-ordinaiy, and all the more shame 
upon us if daily attention to the heart-wants of 
men is more than ordinary ! Religion should 
claim more thought and more zeal until " extra- 
ordinary" efforts between Sabbaths become so 
common and spontaneous as to be " ordinary." It 



266 



Common Things. 



is an easy matter for persons to be too holy to 
look after the poor sinner on Sabbath, and too busy 
to look after him on any other day, so that between 
profession and practice among the churches, thou- 
sands of unvisited and uninvited souls are slipping 
every day to perdition. 

The devil fishes for men. Why should not the 
church ? Does Christ not say to every disciple, 
"Henceforth you shall catch men?" Then if we 
have been toiling all through these weary nights, 
with our narrow creeds, our fastidious forms, our 
dainty devices, all so nice, so consistent, so easy, 
so fashionable, and have caught nothing, let us cast 
the net on the other side of the ship. Let us reverse 
our plans. Let us learn that it will not do to work 
for self all the w T eek and then go fishing on Sunday ! 
We must cast the net among the fishes, and not 
wait for the fishes to cast themselves into the net. 

The devil fishes w r ith a hook. He baits and 
wounds. All along our streets, nis hooks are set, 
the barbs concealed by enticing baits. His line 
extends from the low dark depths of the drinking 
saloon to the surface shine and shimmer of the 
opera. And young men and young ladies are 
swarming around the hidden danger, like silly 



E VER Y-DA Y GL OR Y. 



2G7 



minnows around the bait that conceals the hook. 
You may see well-dressed, happy looking people 
any day, along our streets, nibbling at the devil's 
hooks. And, an}' to-morrow, you may see these 
same nibblers wounded, caught, and perishing in 
the alien atmosphere. With all these dangers 
tempting and thinning out the people, is it too sen- 
sational to work, and, with united effort, daily to 
stretch out the long, wide gospel net, and cast it 
into the sea, and seek to save men whole and 
speedily ? Oh, sinning people ! by which means 
will ye be caught — for be caught ye must — by the 
gospel net, that wounds not but saves your soul 
and body, or by the devil's deceitful hook, that first 
entices, then lacerates and leaves you dying but 
never dead? May the efforts of the Christian 
church, in all its walks and works, in all its 
prayers and exhortations, in all its alms and sym- 
pathies, be abundantly blest of the Lord ! 

At least two-thirds of the population of our 
cities and towns do not frequently attend any 
place of public worship. And this proportion is 
rather increasing than diminishing. Now is it not 
the duty of ministers and all church members to 
devise some means to reach the masses of the 



268 



Common Things. 



people with the sound and spirit of the gospel ? 
If there are empt}' pews in the churches, and un- 
used blessings in the Word, and people by thous- 
ands, without, perishing in their sins, would it be 
presumption for the churches to awake to the 
common courtesy of recommending good to their 
neighbors? What is the meaning of the Scripture, 
" Go out into the highways and hedges and compel 
them to come in ?" Alas, even when some attempts 
are made in this direction — when an invitation is 
given in good faith, and chances to be overheard by 
certain professing Christians, there is sometimes a 
chill criticism thrown upon the motive of him who 
makes the effort. " Nobody else does that." " That 
is for effect." " That is too sensational." Well, 
if " nobodjr else does that," so much greater the 
necessity that it should be done. Yes, it should be 
done, too, " for effect." 0, for more effect! " Sen- 
sational?" To be sure: the gospel has always 
been sensational. Who shall be ashamed of it for 
that ? Sensationalism is what the sleeping, sinning 
millions need, rather that the fastidious custom 
and cant that are forcing them to reject the Re- 
deemer. 

If men are to be attracted by the gospel and 



E very-day Glory. 



2GD 



saved, church services must be made more interest- 
ing ; the exercises must be helpful to all that hear 
and see; and every professor of Christianity must 
become a worker together with Christ in the ele- 
vation of all men to the light and love and liberty 
of the children of God. 

In most churches there is one great want ; it is 
a want of sociality among the member's. It may 
arise, in part, from the fact that there is so little 
opportunity for them to become acquainted with 
one another. If so, then systems of worship should 
be so modified or supplemented as to afford such 
opportunities. This finger-tip, if touch-at-all kind 
of Christianity, is too squeamish and formal a thing 
to win the hearts of the people. The religion that 
triangles itself on the face like slices of persimmon 
pie, peak downwards, is not the thing that human 
beings who truly hunger after righteousness shall 
ever learn to relish. There should be more natural- 
ness, even if human nature is depraved. Better 
have it depraved than not to have it at all. It is 
something that can be worked up by the grace of 
Jesus Christ into the higher, the better, the divine. 
Ever} 7 worshiper should permit his ordinary week- 
day countenance to accompany him to the sanctuary 



270 Common Thixgs. 



on Sabbath ; for when he puts on the solemn but 
one day out of every seven, and wears it into his 
pew, the fit is awkward. In it he makes such a ludic- 
rous picture that it causes an observing preacher a 
gratuity of amusement that he doesn't need in the 
pulpit. 

There are Christians who commune at the Lord's 
table statedly for years, and yet never learn the 
names, the sentiments, the characters, the tenden- 
cies, much less the sympathies and spiritual con- 
ditions of their brethren. They call themselves a 
family of God's children ; and yet draw mammon 
lines and levels, pass one another in the street un- 
recognized, save as the world suggests. They have 
never learnt any heart-manners in church, and go 
about as much in abeyance to the world's fashions 
as possible. Outside society arranges their com- 
panionships, after all. 

It is hardly possible or proper, perhaps, for 
church members to cultivate personal acquaintance- 
ships on days of worship. The public service of the 
sanctuary, either in its preliminaries or its closings, 
affords no appropriate opportunity for any thing 
more than a single word or an occasional hand- 
grasp ; yet these have a magic power. Neithei 



E very-day Glory. 



271 



•loes the prayer-meeting or the Sabbath-school 
provide sufficient facilities for this important part 
of Christian duty and influence. How, then, shall 
the members of a church become more familiar with 
one another ? Would it not be an excellent plan 
for the minister to announce from the pulpit, once 
in every month, that, on a certain week-day evening, 
the church would be opened and lighted, the choir 
present, and that all were invited to come, bringing 
such of their friends as may be occasional worshipers 
with them, to have a pleasant, social time together, 
talking freely and promiscuously as in a home 
parlor? By such an announcement, the Marthas 
of the congregation would be apt to think of an 
additional attraction for all — viz., a supper in the 
lecture-room. There is no place where timidity 
and unacquaintedness may be so completely over- 
come, as at a well-ordered, social supper-table. 
Then, truly, there would be an opportunity to eat 
and drink to the glory of God ! 

Something like this would at once interest all 
the friends of any church, and afford the privilege 
of consulting together on the interests of the mem- 
bership; would win friends from the world, and 
attach them to a cause that show^s its heart and 



272 



Common Things. 



hand ; and might be the means of increasing and 
operating, in a wonderful manner, the other appli- 
ances of the gospel. And as a part of the " what- 
soever," the children, also, might be present, and 
add to the enjoyment of the occasion by singing 
their favorite songs. 

An evening each month, thus employed, would 
bring the members and friends of a church face to 
face, and excite a mutual interest and sympathy, 
such as the ordinary religious services might never 
achieve. And what an advantage to the minister 
to see his people all together as social friends, to 
hear their voices, and learn their habits of thought 
and life, in company, as well as from pastoral calls 
at their places of abode ! How such a mingling of 
soul would bind a church-membership, young and 
old, rich and poor, into oneness of aim and work, 
as well as into oneness of name and worship ! 

After supper, a short speech might be in order, a 
familiar hymn, a brief exhortation, a prayer, or any 
exercise that any loving heart might suggest to 
other loving hearts around. The more freedom from 
form, the better. Then at the close of the inter- 
view, the doxology, the benediction, shake of hands, 
and happy " good-nights." Would not such an 



£ very-day Glory. 273 

arrangement be orthodox enough for the most 
fastidious congregation in Christendom? 

Bees find the flowers, not because they are sym- 
metrical and beautiful, but because they have honey 
in them. If sinners are ever attracted to the 
churches, it will not be by the observance of stated 
and stately forms, or by the display of gaudy para- 
phernalia, but because there is honey in them. 

Note. — Copious extracts from this lecture were correctly reported 
in the Pittsburgh Commercial at the time of its delivery; and a 
portion of the report has since appeared anonymously in various 
periodicals. It is, therefore,, due the author to make this statement 
as some of his readers may have already perused certain of these 
paragraphs. The Publisueus. 

18 



VI. 




ONCE AND FOREVER* 

Eternity. — Isaiah lvii. 15. 

jHIS solemn word occurs but once in the 
Bible. Its measureless meaning can not 
be grasped by angels or men. But great 
and awful as it is, we, to-day, are intimately and in- 
separably connected with it ; and we may be sum- 
moned to face its realities in a moment. 

The Godhead alone is eternal. Eternity reaches 
back, before all beginnings ; and forward, beyond all 
endings. Angels and men shall know an eternal 
future, but God only, the infinite past as well. 
Immortality has a first breath. Eternity may be 
likened to a ring, which has neither beginning nor 
ending. 

There is a certain number of grains of sand on 
the sea shore. There is a certain number of water- 



* Spoken on Sabbath morning succeeding the great explosion at 
the Rees, Graff & Dall's Iron-Mills, in the Ninth ward, Pittsburgh, 
November 8, 1867. 
274 



Once and Fore fee. 



275 



drops in the ocean. There is a certain number of 
blades of grass on the ground — leaves in the for- 
est — stars in the sky. All these myriads have a 
far-off limit which figures could be trained to reach, 
and, one by one, to exhaust. Now, suppose these 
vast multitudes could be counted, sand by sand, drop 
by drop, blade by blade, leaf by leaf, star by star ; 
counted slowly — very slowly, with a million years 
between one and two ; ten millions of years between 
two and three ; a hundred millions of years between 
three and four ; a thousand millions of years 
between four and five ; and on in this tedious ratio 
of geometrical progression — still, all the sands, and 
drops, and blades, and leaves, and stars, might be 
numbered ; and the time taken to do it would not 
be missed from eternity as much as the tick of a 
second from a lifetime. It is so great that abso- 
lutely nothing can be added. Eternity needs no 
chronometer, for it never draws any nearer its 
termination. Forever and forevermore ! From 
everlasting to everlasting — world without end. 

We shall each one exist forever. 

The human soul is a part of God's own breath, 
and can not die. This body of flesh and bones and 
blood, like all corruptible things, may be crushed 



276 



Common Things. 



in a moment ; it must wear out in a few years — 
must die and turn cold, and mix with clay. You 
have almost shuddered in crossing the Allegheny 
Mountain, when the swift car, held to the iron rail 
by a finger-width flange, hurled you along the edge 
of a precipice, or over the deep gulf, where, in a 
moment, should a rail be an inch from its place, 
you might be dashed into eternity. You are timid 
and watchful when you visit the rooms where 
ponderous engines are heated and hurried to short, 
heavy breaths in rolling the red metals. You 
think of hourly exposure to treacherous fire and 
steam ; and the very noise of machinery is to you a 
succession of emphatic warnings to be careful. 
But the workmen become accustomed to sounds of 
confusion, forgetting the perils of the place in the 
quiet contemplations of their own busy minds. 
They seldom think that the strong white arm 
which breaks a prison of iron in a flash, may snatch 
them into the everlasting prisonage of eternity ; or 
that the bursting of a hot boiler should be but the 
swinging open of a heavenly door. 

And yet the elements of air we breathe are ad- 
justed to each other with such critical accuracy, 
that a very slight disarrangement of their propor- 



Once and Forever. 



277 



tions would cause the whole earth to burst into 
devouring flames. An intrusive touch tampering 
with God's order in the atmosphere would stop 
the breath of every living creature with instant 
suffocation. 

This vast world of ours hangs upon nothing— in 
empty space, sweeping around the sun a thousand 
times more swiftly than any railroad express. It 
leans upon the plane of its orbit, as a race-horse 
leans upon his pathway while he runs. And if it 
should incline a little more or a little less, or if it 
should wildly leap over its unfenced race-course, 
every city would be wrecked as utterly by the 
plunge, as the iron-mill on Friday last by the ex- 
plosion. In a cingle draught of water that 
refreshes a thirsty workman's throat, there slum- 
bers an electrical energy, which, if only aroused, 
would darken the firmament with storms, and 
shake the hills with thunders ! 

But God's merciful hand hides from our eyes the 
mysterious powers which are perpetually acting all 
around us. He would have us trust in a wisdom 
and providence we may not comprehend. He 
would teach us, by our very ignorance, to hold our- 
selves in readiness for any emergency locked up in 



278 



Common Things. 



the future. The taper of human life burns so fee- 
bly that a breath can extinguish it. A single mis 
step,* a trifling mistake, the neglect of a moment, 
may launch an immortal soul from time to eternity. 

But in the shock and" change of death, our 
identity shall be preserved. No matter how hoiri 
bly the body may be mangled, its dissolution does 
jiot imply the destruction of the living agent 
within. The thinking power is single, indivisible, 
independent, immortal. There is a monarch of 
spirit, to whose bidding the body is subject. 

An individual removes from an old tumble-down 
hut, rejoicing at the change. A man is not local 

* Just three months after the delivery of this discourse, a highly- 
esteemed and noble young man, a member of the First Methodist 

Church, Pittsburgh, Mr. G - B, , by the manner of his 

departure from this world, literally illustrated the truth of the Scrip- 
ture words " There is but a step between me and death." He had 
endured the horrors of Andersonville prison for eighteen months 
during the war ; but was spared to return to his home and friends, 
to engage in business, to wed the object of his affections, and to set. 
tie in a quiet home in the suburbs of the city. Life seemed all provi- 
dence and promise to him. But how transient and uncertain are 
earthly hopes ! One evening at twilight, while passing up a hill-side, 
in company with a few friends, from the railroad depot to his residence, 
he slipped on the icy path on the verge of a precipice and fell from the 
very hand of his wife, to the frozen ground below, and expired in a 
few hours. The shadow of that wintry twilight will never be 
entirely lifted away from some loving hearts until the rising sun 
*nd answering recognitions of eternity shall shine and satisfy. 



Once and Forever. 



279 



and fixed, and can not b3 built into the W£-lls of his 
own dwelling. He who not made for lhat. TI12 fall- 
ing down of the hut is not the destruction of the 
man who lived in it. But when he removes, ths old 
tenement is silent ; its doors arc closed ; the light 
of the windows is blinded and gone. The dy/eller 
has departed. The dust accumulates. The tooth 
of time gnaws down the fabric, and soon it is all 
dust to dust. Bu f ; the man who once lived there, 
now elsewher*. continues to live. 

So when the soul leaves this tabernacle of dis- 
solving clay, there is silence ; darkness: sattlcs 
within where lately tnere waj light. The body 
crumbles away. Those unburied corpses in the 
Ninth ward, to-day, bruised, cindered, and distorted, 
two days ago were strong-armed men. But those 
bodies, like ours, weie made for time. Their souls, 
like ours, were breathed into consciousness for 
eternity. Their souk are entered for judgment, 
even before their bodies arc covered in the grave. 
When their wives and children were waiting for 
them to come home to dinner, they had appeared 
before God and his holy angels in eternity. They 
live on and ?b?ll be horned in better mansions or 
roam orphaned and outcast forever, according to 
the deeds done in the body. 



2S0 



Commox Thlxgs. 



Yev. hi^e stsexi, in the war, how men may los« 
limbs, or their organs of sense, and how very 
much of one's body may be cut away, and 3-et the 
] Iving, responsible agent remain the same. To am 
palate a right arm take? no right away from tho 
soul These bodies of ours were once very small , 
and then a great portion of that small body might 
have been detached, and yet the ident : ty would noo 
have been obscured. There may be fractional 
bodies ; but there can bo no fractional souls. 
There may be dissolving bodies ; but there can be 
no dissolving souls. There may be bodily annihi- 
lafcico, as in an explosion and fire; but no accident 
or burning will ever annihilate a soul. 

The mind is che man. Our bodily senses are but 
the instruments of a probationary life. The body 
is but a chest of tools ; and the , c oul uses them in 
its epprertieeship for the Letter world &p.d its ce 
'eglial occupations. A hand may ns well decay 
^nd turn *o dust, as the pencil, the plane, vhe 
namir er, or the chisel it holds, when its appointed 
ta°k is done. You can live without your pen, or 
•.rowel, — you can live without your finger, without 
your hand, without your arm, without your whole 
body; for there is another sphere of action and 



Once and Forever. 



281 



intenscr vitality, ever continuous, ever conscious, 
ever progressive, and ever the same in identity and 
purpose. 

Food sustains and replenishes the body. Its par- 
ticles form blood and bone and flesh. But the 
mind feeds on ideas. What the spirit of man 
hungers after and obtains, can not be lodged in the 
material body. So let death dissolve the body, the 
mental treasures are untouched, imperishable. It 
is dust to dust; spirit to spirit — the soul to Him 
who gave it. In building a house, rough scaffold- 
ing is used. But when the house is finished, the 
scaffolding is knocked away. So in building an 
immortal life. The body with its senses and appe- 
tites is used as the beams, levers and planks of an 
outer building — a kind of work-shop to the real 
one — where wisdom may be gathered in tangible 
results and shaped and set into the enduring edi- 
fice ; then, in due time, the scaffolding is taken 
down, leaving the new house all the more distinct 
and beautiful without it. It is not necessary that 
any of the timber of a scaffold be durable. Any 
soft wood answers the purpose. Now, "there is a 
building of God, a house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens." It is not necessary tha* 



282 



Common Things. 



this body be solid as granite ; it may be of the 
earth, earthy. It answers the Builder's purposes 
when by it, in time, ideas, principles, and purposes, 
may be the better brought and built into the temple 
where the Gracious Spirit may dwell and commune 
with our own henceforth. ! it is well that a soul 
such as yours and mine, and a body like this, 
should enter upon but a limited partnership. The 
body may die suddenly, to-day ; but the thinking 
goes on forever. Fierce disease may warp and 
wrench the body, and reduce it to a skeleton ; but 
the soul sings triumph over all things corruptible. 
Though the flesh of a man may dry on his bones, 
his reason and imagination ruay expand and vivify 
always the more ! I have seen men spiritually 
strong and exultant while their bodies were in- 
haling the breath for the last death-gasp. The 
final moment is frequently one of intensest mental 
enjoyment — the hour of happy release ; and the 
clearest perceptions are spoken down to the instant 
when the sunken eye glasses, and the jaw drops 
cold in death. 

From such considerations we conclude that the 
soul exists never, never to die ; that it can have a 
being independent of the body and that the soul 



Oxce axd Fore ver. 



283 



is conscious while the body lies shrouded in the 
coffin, or mouldering in the grave. 

And Eternity shall find us, the moment Time re- 
leases us, just as we are, and fix our destiny in ac- 
cordance with our actions, down to the last record 
of our doings in the world. Here in the body we 
have all the aids of reason, sense and association 
to comprehend Christ, who was himself made flesh 
that we might know him and love him as a brother 
while trusting him as a God. And the salvation 
he offers at so much cost — for his body was bruised 
and mangled, too, ye poor mothers, weeping be- 
cause your sons and husbands were not even per- 
mitted to die at your homes — the salvation pur- 
chased by the out-door death of Jesus is not for a 
bodily life-time only, but for the eternity of every 
believing soul. 

But living union with Christ is possible only 
before the death of the body. The Christian, as a 
branch, is by faith grafted into the Tine, and his 
life can never be interrupted while the Tine lives, 
and its life sources flow. Because Jesus lives, we, if 
we choose him and love him, shall live also ; and live 
as long as He lives, parallel with vast, eternal ages. 

Eternity ! We are almost there. Its doors fly 



284 



Common Things. 



open at our feet. We walk nearer its massive 
portals to-day than ever before. A few steps more, 
and then — Eternity ! We may not know how very 
soon. When they left their homes on Friday 
morning, how little those stalwart men, or their 
beloved, thought of the opening door of eternity ! 
They fondly expected to enter their familiar home 
doors at noon, to meet their wives and sisters from 
the kitchen, and their darling children from the 
school ; and to partake gratefully of the accustomed 
meal, circled lovingly around the table, eating the 
bread — sweetest in all the world ! — the bread of 
hard and honest toil. But just before the usual 
signal for noon-clay rest and refreshment, the strong 
men heard the sudden springing of a bolt from 
the ponderous door that opened to the judgment; 
and they were summoned to the realities beyond, in 
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Doubtless 
some of them prayed, that morning, at home ; but 
they rose from their knees, as we too often do, ex- 
pecting surely to pray again, and with some heart- 
cares uncommitted to the Burden-bearer. They 
may have deferred some special pleading for self, 
or wife, or child, unto another day — one of those 
vague to-morrows which never come. But there 



Once and Forever. 



285 



was no time for prayer when the bolt was sprung — 
when the awful door rolled open wide, and ushered 
them all, just as they were, into the presence of 
God ! Yet such men, humble, honest, hard-working, 
uninfluenced by the fashions and follies of the day, 
if they professed the religion of Jesus, who him- 
self consecrated manual labor by his own hands' 
toil, — such men were less liable to confusion of 
face before God than any similar number as sud- 
denly called from the more brilliant walks of 
society. 

Yet why were we all so startled by the news of 
the calamity of Friday ! If one should look closely 
over this congregation, could there not be found 
somebody bearing plain marks of being in the first 
stages of consumption, or some other creeping and 
deceptive, but fatal malad}- ? And yet there is no 
alarm in that countenance ! Its wearer vainly 
imagines that he has a secure lease here on God's 
footstool as a dwelling place, so long as it shall 
last ; and he looks up here to-day as unconcerned 
as if nothing but the destruction of earth's ever- 
lasting hills could ever hoist him out of it ! Now, 
if I were to tell you in such a way that you should 
believe it, that the world would be consumed in a 



286 



Common Things. 



week, or a month, or a year, or even ten years 
hence, you would wake up, as if for the first time, 
from the dream of your earthly immortality. What 
is it to you, dying sinner, when the world comes 
to an end, so you but realize that you, yourself, 
are rapidty coming to an end ? How many in 
this congregation, this morning, will have passed 
into eternity in one year, in two years, in five? 
To all such the world will have come to an end as 
absolutely as if its materials had been consumed. 
The hand of the destroying angel is already upon 
you. I see the breath-touch of his coming in your 
whitening hair, your sallow cheek, j^our tottering 
walk, your fading eye, your weakening pulse. 
You need not go searching prophecy for the time 
of the end of the world ; for you will find your own 
dissolution more distinctly traced and greatly 
nearer than any of the times and half-times of 
Daniel. This old earth is as perfect now, and un- 
death-looking as when it rolled nev^-made from the 
palm of the Omnipotent hand. But you bear in 
your body the marks of speedy destruction. 

To sailors, washed overboard in the midst of a 
turbulent sea, it is all the same whether the ship 
outride the storm or sink with all her crew in the 



Once and Forever. 



2S7 



surges of the deep. It is all over with him who is 
swept over! So when disease and accident are 
sweeping our neighbors from the world's broad 
deck into the ocean of eternity, it is the same to all 
of us who feel the last rope slipping — slipping 
from our hands— all the same, as if the whole world 
had been wrecked and swallowed with us. Eter- 
nity storms round us to-day. The skies are black- 
ening ; the tempest is rising ; the lightnings are 
blazing; the thunders are roaring. Our frail bark 
shall be broken to pieces, and engulfed in the sea. 
What shall we do to be saved ? "We are adrift. 
Time's shores are receding. The wind and tide 
are sweeping us away and away, and there is no 
return. Since we must drift on, and since these 
trembling; barks must go under, ichat shall ice do 
to be saved ? Ah, that is the cry which penetrates 
the clouds and reaches the ear of One who rules 
the wind and wave ! Behold ! yonder comes the 
life-boat of salvation ; and her pilot is Jesus. No 
waves can beat her down. Xo blasts can drive her 
back. He who guides the helm can hush a raging 
sea to peace ; and he holds the winds in his fists. 
Ho! the life-boat! To-day, the life-boat! This 
moment, the life-boat ! 



288 



Common Things. 



Sinner, jrour condition is as perilous as though 
Gabriel's trumpet had already announced a sinking 
world for to-day, and the judgment throne for to- 
morrow ! The end is at hand, in so far as you 
have any relation to it. You know not what a day 
or an hour may bring forth. Salvation is offered 
to-day. To-morrow the books shall be opened. Oh! 
it is no baseless, unmeaning alarm which sounds 
from the lips of the Apostle, and re-echoes in the 
wailingsof widows and orphans in our own city, to- 
day. "The end of all things is at hand; be ye 
therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." It was 
no mere accident which shocked our city two days 
a^o. God sends a meaning in it. The lesson has a 
flaming significance, did we but rightly read it, and 
ponder it in our hearts. 

H He of the lion-voice, the rainbow-crown'd, 
Shall stand upon the mountains and the sea., 
And swear by earth, by Heaven's throne, by Hitn 
Who sitteth on the throne, there shall be Time 
No more — no more ! Then vailed Eternity 
Shall quick unvail her awful countenance 
Unto the reeling world, and take the place 
Of seasons, years, and ages." 

But, my brother, my sister, you shall never die ; 
j'ou can not die; you must live forever. Now, see- 
ing your destiny and your danger, how will you 



Once and Forever. 



289 



treat the Lord Jesus Christ when he stands at 
your heart-door and knocks ? Before you Jesus 
stands knocking, knocking now. rise and let 
him in ! And then, when at heaven's door you 
stand a pleader, he will arise and admit you into 
his blessed home and make it yours forevermore. 

Death, the monster Monarch, rules this world. 
He rides forth on his pale horse, and lest his 
tramping be heard, he alights, presses his way 
into the quiet upper chamber where an infant is 
sleeping, and steals it away from the arms of an un- 
suspecting mother ; and he dashes, mounted, along 
the floors of the great iron-mill, among strong men 
working, and strikes a score from their anvils and 
forges, and tramps them mangled under his fiery 
feet. " He lets loose the dogs of war," and hunts 
down the bravest men of the nation by thou- 
sands. Famine and pestilence are his servants, 
traversing continents, making graves on the plain 
as the wind makes billows on the sea. The ocean 
obeys his commands, and ingulfs ships in its 
depths. The railroad train does his bidding, and 
dashes unthinking hundreds to blackness of dark- 
ness. He opens the earthquake caverns and swal- 
lows cities in a moment. Oh! the swift and relent- 

19 



290 



Common Things. 



less Angel of Death 1 He sweeps through the air. 
He screams in the blast. The earth trembles at 
his tread, and is covered with his tracks. To-day, 
it is Time ; to-morrow, Eternity ! Now, while it is 
yet to-day, believe and live. Give your heart, as it 
is, to the Saviour ; and give it just now. Then, 
henceforth and forever, eternity, of all words ever 
spoken or heard, will be the sublimest to your soul. 

And, as a disciple of Jesus, you need not be told 
to remember the widow and the fatherless. Pure 
and undefiled religion is to visit them in their afflic- 
tion; to shed the sympathizing tear; to offer the 
helping hand ; to pray, and leave an amen that can 
be eaten or worn. You, that have a plenty and to 
spare, whose homes have not been made desolate 
by disaster, will take from your cellars and pantries 
something more practical than phrases and tracts ; 
for example, those delicacies 3^011 sealed up for 
Christmas ; you will make up packages and go 
with them, not send them, but you will go with 
them in the name of a disciple. You will go as a 
father, as a mother, as a brother, as a sister, and 
radiate your own home-cheer among the hearts of 
the bereaved ; and when you return it will seem as 
if you had done it to the Son of God, and you will 



Once and Forever. 291 



find your own fireside brighter, and }'our own soul 
happier, and your own body stronger, for the 
errand. And so living in time, when eternity shall 
open upon you, gently or suddenly, in-doors or out, 
at home or abroad, you will be found ready for 
your robe and your crown. 

" While all dispute on points of doctrine, none 
Doubt what Religion teaches to be done, 
Bear sorrow here, and look to Heaven for bliss, 
This thy theology, thy practice this ; 
Believe God's promises, his precepts keep, 
Joy with the joyful, with the mourner weep; 
Exalt Love's banner, evermore unfurled, 
And keep thyself unspotted from the world." 



TO 

TWO WORLDS MADE ONE* 



" Who hath divided a watercourse . . . or a way 
for the lightning." — Job xxxviii. 25. 

" Many -hall run to and fro, and knowledge shall 
be increased." — Daniel xii. 4. 

** There is no political news of real importance to- 
day."— Yesterday's Telegram from London. 




HESE ancient Scriptures, which I have 
quoted, are being fulfilled in our ears and 
before our eyes. Many messengers are 
running to and fro, over the mountains, across the 
plains, under the seas, and knowledge is increas- 
ing. Intellect, by its agents of discovery and in- 
vention, commissions new heralds, and heralds pro- 
claim advancing knowledge every day. Lightning 
flashes, in vivid capitals, the headlines and the out- 
lines of passing events, over all the land, each morn- 
ing ; and steam fills in the local particulars, with 
comments and lessons, every evening. 

We live in an age of results outwrought from 
centuries of experiment. From our stand-point in 
time, we might change the tense of Daniel's pro- 

* Spoken at Union Chapel Independent Methodist Church, Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, Sabbath morning, August 5, 1866. 
292 



Two Worlds made One. 



295 



phecy, and mark it down as accomplished history. 
Many have run to and fro, and knowlege has been 
increased. 

Adam, with but a fig-leaf beginning at fashion, 
led Eve on foot from Paradise. The great green 
world was before him ; but how little did he know 
of its resources, or of his own inherent powers ! 
What a different world the angels behold, down- 
looking from the heavens to-day, from that whose 
Eden-gate was guarded by the cherubim ! 

Man, when he began to travel, was a plodding 
pedestrian. Then he subdued animals. That was 
about the first invention. Horses, camels, and 
mules carried all the passengers and commodities 
of the early ages. " The first roads were along the 
water-courses ; next, a little up the slopes of hills ; 
next, across the passes between ; next, from one 
river to another, beyond the deserts, and around 
the inland seas. The interior of Asia was the 
childhood home of the human race ; the Arminian 
highlands the occasional points of visitation ; the 
Euphrates valley their native country; the nameless 
sea the boundary of all, and the end of the earth."* 



* Rev. W. A. Scott, D.D., San Francisco, Cal., 1S5S. 



296 



Common Things. 



In the progress of time and development of talent, 
men learned to migrate by caravans ; then, by ships, 
to venture from one promontory to another in sight, 
thus coasting about the Edges of Things, until, 
finally, they discovered means and guides to sail 
from shore to shore across broad gulfs and bays; 
and Columbus, measuring the vast Atlantic, found 
a new world in the Wcfst. Then came the necessity 
for larger and better vessels ; next, the application 
of steam to drive them ; ancT, at length, the same 
wondrous power to draw railroad trains over path- 
ways of iron throughout the rapidly populating 
interiors of civilization. 

And now come the lightning lines to and fro 
over land and river, under inlet and bay, and, at 
last, beneath the broad Atlantic Ocean ! There is 
to-day a nervo-viial cord of feeling and thought, 
thrilling with one pulsing life the great commercial 
centers of Christendom. This rolling globe, from 
its Asia garden where man's foot first pressed its 
dewy grass, around with the sun to the farthest 
western shore toward Asia again, to-day is girdled 
with a wire along which light and love may run to 
and fro, increasing knowledge, intensifying civiliza- 
tion, promulgating Christianity, until all the na- 



Two Worlds made One. 297 



tions shall be one in life, in liberty, in worship, and 
in work. 

Man has mastered the ocean's storm and roar, 
and its deep chambers have become the whispering 
galleries along whose corridors his free thought 
leaps onward, echoing from continent to continent. 
Now can we tell to our foreign friends beyond the 
sunrise sea, the quiet words of home, the busy 
calculations of commerce, the daily promises of 
agriculture, the inspiring thoughts of science, the 
ever-elevating conceptions of art, the sweet music- 
language of the coming kingdom of Christ; and 
receive responses dating backward on the dials of 
our chronometers. What a beautiful dedication to 
the cable — how ii merits the meaning of Heart's 
Content — that the first message from the East 
should be an intimation of Peace ! It is like that 
which comes to us from the Farther East — the morn- 
ing land of Immanuel — when the angels telegraphed 
a heart's content message to the shepherds of 
Bethlehem, at midnight, — Peace ! 

Blessed thought ! We can send the glad word 
Eastward — Peace in America ! We hail the whis- 
per out-heralding steam and sun, speaking out 
of the sea, Peace in Europe! It chimes with the 



298 



Common Things. 



tidings from heaven — " Peace on earth, good will 
to men!" 0! thou Guide of the sun, thou 
Kindler of the lightning, thou impressional Spirit 
of all truth, speak Peace, thrill Peace to every 
nation, Peace to every heart, and tinge into pur- 
pling dawn the day when the Prince of Peace 
shall come to reign ! 

The ancients filled the vaulted chambers of the 
sea with their gods ; but it is now the highway for 
Christian thought. Surely, if a man can send his 
communications into the deep ocean, and through 
it, God himself is able to send the summons, in due 
time, that shall cause its sepulchral depths to give 
up their dead. The Lord Almighty hath divided a 
watercourse — a way for his lightnings to flash, 
unextinguished, through deep waters. They run 
to and fro as couriers between ocean-sundered 
nations, carrying our thoughts and greetings from 
shore to distant shore, and knowledge shall be yet 
more and more increased. 

" How strange that the thoughts we think up here 
on the earth's surface — away here in the interiors 
of the continent — these thoughts about the markets, 
the exchanges, the seasons, the crops, the elections, 
the wars, the treaties, and all other fond nothings 



Two Worlds made One. 



299 



of daily life," as Everett has said, "how very 
strange that they should clothe themselves with 
elemental sparks, and dart with electric velocity, 
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, from 
hemisphere to hemisphere, far down among the un- 
couth monsters that wallow in the nether seas, along 
the floors of mystic rock and wreck, through the 
dungeon glooms and caverns of the rayless deep I 
How strange that intelligence of harvested wheat, 
and tasseling corn, and mellowing fruit of this 
glowing summer over us, should be touched into 
leaping language every new day, and speed as good 
news to the hungry of old Europe beyond the sea ; 
and that these thrilling words of cheer should go 
flashing along the slimy decks and bones of sunken 
galleons which have been rotting for ages ! How 
strange that messages of heart-beating love between 
husband and wife, parents and children, should 
flash and burn on to the distant sun-lit shore right 
through the damps and colds of the old, green 
skeletons of shipwrecked men and women, whose 
hearts, once warm, and young, and glad, burst at 
the surge of the tempest, and were buried as the 
eternal gulfs yawned and roared over them long 
centuries ago I" 



300 



Common Things. 



You remember the jubilant congratulations of 
the people when, in 1858, the Atlantic Cable spoke 
but a single word. But that word, fully interpreted, 
was this : Possibility. Cyrus W. Field is a 
thousand-fold rewarded, to-day, for all the disap- 
pointments, anxieties, and discouragements of these 
silent eight years. When the cable ceased to talk, 
right in the midst of the people's noisy compli- 
ments, at once the language of congratulation 
changed to that of unkind criticism. The failure 
called out from the same mouths and newspapers 
more emphatic " I-told-you-sos," than the flush of 
success had elicited words of praise. How easy it 
is for "many to run to and fro," publishing tales 
of misfortune! How glibly the tongue tilts over 
the syllables of uncharitable censure! So was 
Columbus, so was Galileo, so was Fulton, each in 
his turn, the subject of ridicule and persecution, 
just at the time when cheer and counsel, however 
desirable, might have been worse for him. Flat- 
teries are not half so culturing as oppositions. 

The ladder Jacob saw was let down from Hea- 
ven; that was for angels. But the ladder of 
thought by which men climb up into the angel- 
loves and levels, is raised from the earth. Newton, 



Two Worlds made One. 301 



Franklin, and Morse, have built their own ladders, 
round by round, and are still building at the 
upper ends of them, and rising forward into God's 
eternity. 

The telescope, microscope, photography, tele- 
graphy, are but combinations of God's laws. "The 
laws of nature and the properties of matter become, 
to us, the expressions of his will." These are the 
gifts. Ours, and here, and now, is the use. 

The same omnipotent hand " that hung the rain- 
bow over the ruins of the flood," making a dark 
sky only the back-ground to set forth the vivid 
beauty of a mercy-sign, now guides the lightnings 
of heaven under the waves of the sea. To Him 
whose way is in the deep, and who doeth his will 
in the armies of Heaven, "who maketh the clouds 
his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the 
wind, who maketh his angels spirits, his ministers 
a flaming fire" — to Him be all the praise for this 
grandest achievement of the century ! 

God has blest the genius, courage, and perse- 
verance of our fellow Americans, and given them 
success. The event is worthy of a proclamation for 
a day of national thanksgiving. If the President 
should announce such a day it might be more 



362 



Common Things. 



generally enjoyable than any of his vetoes of human 
progressions. Great Britain should join the inter- 
national jubilee, and invite the world to participate 
in the exercises. The angels of light rejoice at this 
intellectual triumph. It resembles their own way 
of proclaiming glad tidings, by swift and silent 
soul-language, flashing from life to life, and from 
world to world. 

Although both ends of the wire are on British 
soil, American fingers fastened them there. It is a 
world's advantage, and belongs to no nation. " Who 
of us that inhabit the earth admires the sublime 
grandeur of the Apocalypic angel any the less 
because one of his feet stands on the sun, and the 
other on the moon?" And if the morning and even- 
ing stars were the termini of this inystic wire that 
sweeps through the sea, who would not rejoice the 
more, if only there were a single point on this foot- 
stool, where passing tidings might be caught off, in- 
terpreted, and circled out to increase the knowledge 
of the nations ! Political notions are too narrow, 
and national prejudices too insignificant, to have a 
place in the contemplation of such a theme. It is 
the expression of ages of promise and providence 
to the human race. The Atlantic Telegraph was 



Two Worlds made One. 303 



not let into the sea as a mere play-line for compli- 
ments between aristocrats and rulers. It is de- 
signed to subserve the interests of all men, of all 
classes and places, for all ages to come; and espe- 
cially to promote the unity and simultaneous work- 
ings of the church of Jesus Christ, that the will of 
the Lord may be done on earth as in heaven — at 
once, and by all. 

But let us learn a practical lesson or two from 
this subject. In the time of Christ, there was a 
disposition among religionists to strain at gnats 
and swallow camels. That same spirit still mani- 
fests itself in Christendom, even in this country, 
where there are no camels to swallow. It is well for 
the camels, but no better for the camel-swallowers ! 

With such persons there is no individual^, 
independence, or progress. Their life is a deeply 
hidden spark within them, — so deep that its light 
fails to reach the surface and radiate into society ; 
and, therefore, the outward man is whited as a 
sepulcher, and lettered over in the tombstone 
phrases of mint, anise, and cummin ; and cummin, 
anise, and mint. In such hearts there is no in- 
spiration to glorify any thing that nobody else 
has glorified — no feeling to embrace any thing 



304 



Common Things. 



not definitely specified in the list of traditional 
orthodoxies vouchsafed to the fathers away back 
in their pantaletted childhood. The hymns these 
fossilized professors sing must be the sad minor- 
keyed ones of martyr times ; the sermons they 
hear must be as mournfully dolorous as those de- 
livered in the days of the plague ; their counte- 
nances must be as clean-shaven as those of the 
earliest bare-faced Popes ; their language must be 
as monotonous as that of the chanting Druids. 
Their experience must not indulge in any of the 
originals of time, and place, and circumstance, 
but must tally its every thought with some letter 
of some creed of some long-dead professor, whose 
temptations and tendencies were as different as 
they are distant and unapt to be repeated. 

Their fathers sent messages by mule, or courier, 
or carrier-pigeon — their fathers thought, and said, 
and did precisely thus and so, and so, ad infinitum, 
do their cop}ing descendants. The preaching 
their fathers heard and recommended to them, 
never referred to current events or practical ques- 
tions at all ; it was from firstly to lastly about the 
doctrinal distinctions, and the abstract, infinitesimal 
dustinesses of sec^iarianism — about what God knows 



Two Worlds made One. 



305 



find does n't know ; how many should be saved and 
how many damned ; how much water in baptism 
and how little welfare afterward ; whether to stand 
or bow, book it, or try it blind, in prayer ; whether 
to sing the psalms in rhyme, or Watts' and Wes- 
ley's hymns, in worship ; how to wash one another's 
literal feet and tarnish one another's spiritual walk 
— thus ignoring all subjects that could, in any 
wise, be applied to the personal, social, and national 
increase of knowledge. 

Now, if such chaffiness, such conservativeness, 
such other-age-a-tiveness be the gospel, what are 
we to call the teachings of Christ himself? Are 
not his discourses drawn from the living people ? 
Did he not illustrate truth by the vivid pictures of 
daily life around him ? Yes, a falling sparrow of 
the mountain ; a swallow darting round the eaves ; 
a lily blushing in the meadow; a vine spreading 
over its trellis ; a mustard seed springing from the 
ground ; a fisherman drawing his seine to the 
beach ; a husbandman harvesting his fields ; a 
wanderer coming home to his father's house ; an 
eagle swooping through the sky ; a marriage and 
its wine; a funeral and its pall ; the fig tree; the 

judge ; the ruler ; the wind ; the rain ; the light- 

20 . 



306 



Common Things. 



ning ; the tempest, — all these were the texts of his 
sermons. He employed figures and used references 
such as reached the minds and hearts of the actual 
people round him. And yet, much as his enemies 
hated him, they could argue nothing by accusing 
him as a politician, or as a trifler with the dignities 
of the law and the prophets. He knew that to 
speak of the incidents and interests of the people 
themselves, was the best way to enlighten their 
minds and impress their hearts. He knew the soul 
wants of men ; and he chose to employ parables 
and illustrations from nature and from current 
history, and no wonder at all that the people who 
sought knowledge heard him gladly. 

So the ocean telegraph is an appropriate 
theme for this or any other day, and for us or 
any other people. Only let us get the lesson out 
of it, as out of all nature's tallying evidences of 
gospel truth. The original term translated " to 
and fro" signifies making diligent search. How 
do you acquire, and when do you enjoy, knowledge? 
Only when you strive for it. It is a deep-sea 
pearl, and must be dived after. Pearls don't float 
about like leaves. Some of you run through a 
book, or library, for instance, glancing at head 



Two Worlds made One. 307 



lines here and there, and skimming over the deep 
thought places where the pearls are hidden. You 
run through business changing houses and hands 
merely for gain or curiosity. You run through a 
city or region of country so skippingly that neither 
impresses you with any specialness, and you would 
require a guide to retrace the route to-morrow. 
And you run, hop, step, and jump through reli- 
gion in the same manner, so that you hardly know 
what it is. What a miserable burlesque on our 
holy Christianity to say of a sinner when he is 
converted, that " He has got through." How 
often those empty phrases " Got religion," " Got 
through," are repeated by persons whose knowledge 
has not been increased — scarcely begun ! Truth is 
not found in nuggets, much less in coined pieces. 
It is gathered dust by dust, grain by grain; and 
it must be diligently and continuously sought. No 
living man has yet acquired all the gospel he needs. 
So, then, this running to and fro of the text is 
rather a diligent, patient looking into things for 
truth, and a candid discerning of the signs of the 
times. 

Newton, who carried his plummet, and line, and 

lamp of discovery to the infinite highways of the 
19 



308 



Common Things. 



universe, weighing stars, and worlds, and solar 
systems, -'as if they had been pebbles in his palm," 
increased his knowledge by a laborious pursuit of 
science. He knew what he was thinking about, and 
how to teach the generations to come to think for 
themselves. 

So the wise Christian begins his walks in the 
lowly ways of a little child, and finds the path 
leading him up to the summit-grandeurs of philoso- 
phy and revelation at last. Knowledge shall be 
increased to him who studies the works of the 
natural world under the light of the Word of God. 
We live in days of wonders— when prophecies are 
being fulfilled. We have brighter lights and more 
advanced lessons than our fathers had; and God 
intends that we shall open our eyes to see more, 
and our minds to comprehend more, and our hearts 
to enjoy more than any mortals who have lived 
before us. 

I fancy a convention among the fishes, down in 
the sea, when the mysterious cable-wire drops in 
among them. Finny citizens of the deep, of every 
size, and age, and form, from every briny chamber 
and rocky recess along the line of invasion, as- 
semble in excited groups to discuss the merits 



Two Worlds made One. 309 



and meaning of the strange creature which settles 
in their midst. They dart about in reconnoi- 
tering attitudes, eyeing the wire from side to 
side, and cautiously feeling it with their gills, 
darting to and fro to find its head or tail, but 
returning more puzzled than ever, shaking their 
heads, and asking a thousand unanswerable ques- 
tions. The more they consider the matter, the 
more they are bewildered. Both the beginning and 
the end of it are out of the range of their obser- 
vation. They swarm in long lines of busy, curious 
spectators, waiting and watching in the water to 
see whether the wonderful object will show any 
signs of life. 

In the stillness of this contemplation, a com- 
mittee of investigation is appointed to inquire into 
the affair of all-absorbing interest. On motion, 
Salmon, Mullet, and Whiff are unanimously re- 
quested to consider the momentous subject at once, 
and report their views and suggestions for the 
benefit of the community. The committee retire to 
a little niche in a fissured rock, over which the 
mystic wire is stretched, put their heads together, 
and conclude that it must be a new species of fish 
come to dwell with them in their watery home. 



310 



Common Things. 



"It is not a sterlet," says Whiff, "although it is 
armed with bony scales, and has no mouth that I 
can see; nor a sword-fish, although it is destitute 
of fins, and, in body, is hard, and narrow, and 
sharp." 

"No, nor a narwhal ; and yet that twisted thing 
we see may be only the long, horny tusk of the 
monster we dread so much, whose body shall be 
plainly visible by-and-by," says Mullet, with a 
shudder, and a very solemn countenance. 

" It must be either a goby or an eel," remarks 
Salmon, with a wise turn of his head towards the 
quiet stranger lying above them; "for only see its 
snake-like form ; and did you not experience a 
singular sensation as your nose touched his hard 
scales? I think there is life in it— more life than 
we imagine ; and I prefer getting out of this place 
immediately. 

At this moment a shark comes along, having 
followed in the wake of the Great Eastern from the 
Irish shore, watching for plunder in the business, 
but able to preach a little, nevertheless. Being 
somewhat shrewder than the Committee of Special 
Investigation, he asks the privilege to explain the 
mystery. The committee adjourn, and invite the 



Two Worlds made One. 311 



fish audience to assemble and listen to the newly 
arrived itinerant of the sea. The shark proceeds : 
"That object of your wonder is an instrument by 
which thinking, marvelous creatures, who dwell in 
an element above ours, send their thoughts from 
continent to continent, in the twinkling of an eye ! 
Above us, there is a great world of thoughts, 
words, and activities — of glories and grandeurs, 
which we do not comprehend. It is inhabited by 
beings who enjoy a life so superior to ours, that 
you would doubt my story if I told you but the 
beginning of it." 

" All nonsense ; our facts are all against such an 
idea," says Mullet-head; "there is no world above 
our own world of water, and there are no living 
beings but such as dwell in the sea." " So say I ;" 
"And I say amen to that," exclaim the other 
members of the committee, and the whole congre- 
gation flutter their fins, take a swallow or two of 
briny water, and deny the truth the shark as- 
serts. They reject the story for want of brains to 
comprehend it. But the world of human thought, 
and action, and enjoyment, of which they had 
heard, is just the same — just as real — as if every 
finny doubter had believed. 



312 



Common Things. 



So, above as, there is a grand sphere of reali- 
ties and progressions where immortal beings move 
and love. A line of communication has been let 
clown among us. It is the gospel telegraph, whose 
battery is up in another sphere. It starts from a 
firm shore above, and thrills down through our 
deep, dark world, as lightning words flash through 
the sea ! And yet some men are as silly as the 
fishes. They will not believe in a world better 
than this in which they have a breathing, mortal 
life. But their rejection of the eternal Fact does 
not in the least disturb the messages that flash 
along the wire. There are those who will hear and 
enjoy its truths. The blessed world is there, thank 
God, — more bright, and permanent, and beautiful 
than any of these visible things around us ! 

"High as we may lift our renson up, 
By Faith directed, and confirmed by Hope, 
Yet we are able only to survey 
Dawnings of beams, and promises of da-y; 
Heaven's fuller efiluence mocks our dazzled sight, 
Too great its swiftness and too strong its light." 

TTe must study the Bible, the times, and our- 
selves, with humble diligence, and our knowledge 
shall be increased. This is the running to and 
fro that increases our knowledge: it is thought 



Two Worlds made One. 



313 



leaping out in recognition of- thought, hither and 
thither into all events, into all eras, into all re- 
lations, into all circumstances of life — the inquiring 
mind running to and fro gathering facts, comparing 
principles, social, political, scientific, and religious, 
and by pulse beats weaving these threaded lines 
into a vesture of fadeless beauty, in which to greet 
the coming Lord. 

Another practical lesson in our subject is this : 
That God has a way of concealing certain things 
until the proper time for bringing them forth. " In 
nature, the kernel remains guarded in the shell 
awhile — the seed lies sleeping in its wrappage 
until its proper season for sprouting comes." The 
same principle holds in animal life, when tiny 
infancy is protected and nurtured for a time by 
strange and benevolent adaptations, until the 
strength increases, and maturity may be trusted to 
care for itself. So with God's peculiar people. 
They were cradled and disciplined as children, in 
Egypt, tried, tired, and toughened by marches 
through the wilderness, until they acquired the 
strength to possess the promised land. And so the 
whole world was educated out of its childhood, and 
trained up into the grander and matui;er a^e of 



314 



Common Things. 



comprehending Messiah's advent. In the fullness 
of time he came. Thus, through all the histories 
of the past, we find God dealing with men by the 
rule of adapting his grace to the increase of 
knowledge. He leads humanity upward to higher 
elevations, and circles broader horizons around it 
every day. Christianity unthroned the Caesars in 
the fullness of time. It blazed as a beacon through 
the dark ages in the years best suited to the Re- 
formation. It has excited invention, promoted dis- 
covery, and revived letters, giving the world the 
mariner's compass, the printing-press, gunpowder, 
steam, the magnetic telegraph, and all the elements 
by which to conquer the hosts of error and wrong. 

And now the world's wide continents are tra- 
versed by lines or inter-communication, just in these 
1 ^phetic years of our Lord, so propitious for the 
triumph of truth, and the progress of the race into 
the full, free joys of the gospel of Peace. 

Wonderful, rapid, n^sterious communion of all 
nations and islands — all the world over — by the 
lightning thrill ! " There is no speech, nor language 
where its voice is not heard — its line is gone out 
through all the earth, — and its words to the end of 
the world." 



Two Worlds made One. 315 



Brethren, so have you a mystic but heart-touch- 
ing and soul-inspiring communion with the upper 
and better world. Through the deep gulfs, and 
fathomless seas, and immeasurable spaces between 
heaven and earth, a communication has been 
opened up and down through Jesus Christ. Mes- 
sages on swifter wing than lightning's, now run to 
and fro, not at the rich man's price of five dollars 
a word, but free and clear as glad tidings to the 
poor, and as responses from happy souls. 

When the world was dark and desolate in sin, 
when superstition and idolatry everywhere pre- 
vailed, when man had almost sealed his utter 
destruction, and when, among the millions of an 
apostate race, but a weary few remembered and 
trusted the promise of a Messiah — then, in the 
midnight hour, the Lord made bare his arm for 
our redemption. The lowly shepherds who lingered 
in the fields watching their sheep, believed the 
prophets. They pondered the promises. In the still 
and silent night, under the beautiful light of the 
high-hung chandelier of stars, they gazed upward, 
wonderingly waiting for the Messiah. Late one 
evening, as a little neighborly company of these 
Judean shepherds were seated on the ground, 



316 



Common Things. 



doubtless talking over their hopes and fears ; while 
the cool dews were falling upon the pastures ; while 
the flocks were companied in little groups and 
quietly reposing; while the winds were still, and 
stars twinkling as if they would smile the heavenly 
secret down to earth, — suddenly, over the solitude 
of Bethlehem hills, a brilliant light shone round ! 
Lo ! a radiant circle of morning at midnight ! It 
was the glory of the Lord. How with fear and 
amazement the poor shepherds looked into each 
other's faces, and clasped each other's hands, and 
whispered each other's names, in the marvelous 
light ! How pale their cheeks ! How bright their 
eyes ! How tremulous their voices ! How thrilled 
and throbbing their hearts ! 

The angel sees their consternation, and says, 
" Fear not, fear not ; for behold, I bring you glad 
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people ; 
for unto you this day" — how early the news — this 
day — and the angel of this day is earlier than its 
sun! — this day, "in the city of David, a Saviour, 
which is Christ the Lord." 

That w r as the first gospel preached to dying men. 
And it warbled in tones of music from the tongue 
of an angel. What a rapturous beginning! The new 



Two Worlds made One. 317 



gospel of Peace, proclaimed, first of all, to poor men 
in the fields, at night, by an angel itinerant from 
heaven ! 

No wonder the angels rejoiced. The shining 
ones had been watching and listening from the 
battlements of the celestial city — looking far down 
to the dark plains of Bethlehem, and to the as- 
tonished shepherds, and to their own sister angel 
singing the good news into the ears of mortal men ; 
they could restrain their music no longer ; they 
could stay away no longer ; they could keep their 
wings folded no longer, — and instantly a choral 
multitude of them joined the solo of the herald, 
and the heavenly host shouted a chorus, praising 
the Lord, saying, " Glory to God in the highest, 
and on earth peace, good will toward men." 

The angel said that the gospel should be joy to 
all people ; and its Divine Author himself says, 
" Preach the gospel to every creature." It comes 
to all. It brings blessings to all. It never dis- 
criminates ; it never changes ; it never ends. It 
never grows old, and never wearies the ear like the 
languaged opinions and histories of men. Many 
generations of its preachers are in their graves ; 
the thousands now living and proclaiming the 



318 



Common Things. 



glad tidings of salvation, will soon sleep in the 
dust ; and the lips that pronounced it, and the ears 
that were charmed with its sweet sound, and the 
eyes that moistened at its deep meaning, and the 
hearts that bounded at its wonderful love — all shall 
soon be coffined under ground ; but the gosfjel, 0, 
the everlasting gospel ! — 11 Heaven and earth shall 
pass away, but my ivord shall not pass away," saith 
the Lord. 

Other systems of religion have changed with 
the ages, and compromised with the new-fashioned 
Satanisms of the times. Other systems have been 
modeled to suit popular opinions, and shaped to fit 
a warped and crooked policy. But this gospel, 
eternal and immutable as its Author, "is the same 
yesterday, and to-day, and forever." 

Creeds and Confessions tend to establish sects 
and hamper professors to narrowness of love ; but 
the Bible sings of angel charities, and breathes 
them by its Spirit through all the human brother- 
hood. The Bible is broader than bounds, and 
stronger than bands, teaching and exemplifying a 
double affection — an upward, to God, and an out- 
ward, to man, wielding in this Mighty Cross a 



Two Worlds made One. 319 



power of love which the combined forces of earth 
and hell can not withstand. 

Men have sometimes prayed for more visible 
manifestations of this gospel power on the earth, 
but they prayed with hands folded too closely to 
help, and with eyes shut too closely to see the suf- 
ferer, were he standing asking for the Word of Life 
within finger-touch in prayer-time. 

There was a time when men prayed not so 
especially that the gospel might be sent to the 
heathen, as that ships be sent abroad and cruel 
men to catch and bind the heathen, hand and foot, 
and bring them to the gospel ! Those hateful ships 
had borne better ballast by taking free Bibles 
abroad, than by bringing captive mortals here. 
The command was not, " Go ye into some part of 
the world and steal the creature to the gospel," 
but " Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to every creature." Bless God! better 
days are breaking. The time is at hand when 
Bibles shall be in dusky hands till lately fetter- 
bound. The Bible has in it the only ties that shall 
inseparably reunite these politically dissevered 
States of America. For men have been proud 
and oppressive. Men in authority in church and 



320 



Common Things. 



state have attempted to monopolize the blessings 
of the Bible. Magnificent churches, on fashionable 
streets, in great cities, have been erected, and 
gilded, and cushioned, and tinseled, and pew-locked, 
as refineries, where the Bible might run through a 
process of creed cramping, and pulpit stuffing to 
please the ecclesiastical upper orders — the privi- 
leges, the honors, the treasury-ships, the feastings, 
the exaltations, and the crowns, all ingeniously 
selected and parceled out in glittering packages for 
the front pews, and for the Brussels-carpeted par- 
lors of Christendom ; and the self-denials, the sac- 
rifices, the humilities, the fastings, the prayings, the 
persecutions, and the crosses, all put up in assorted 
proportions and sold to the gallery seats, and 
distributed among the poor. And because re- 
ligionists have climbed to such presumption, tramp- 
ing the poor man's Bible underfoot, denjdng 
neighbor and brother, doubting the patient Father, 
it pleases the Almighty to interpose, and he will 
"magnify his word" in all its broad meanings, and 
establish justice and truth on the ruins of our 
broken idols. The great significance of the events 
passing into history these very days, is a prepar- 
ation of the nations for a welcome to the Bible. 



Two Worlds made One. 



321 



Bible principles are progressive, thorough, impar- 
tial and triumphant. And with this book in all the 
people's hands, open and free from cumbrous 
comment, studied, remembered, believed — lived in 
daily work, as well as read in Sabbath worship — 
knowledge shall increase, and grace shall have 
growth, and the kingdom of Christ shall come. 

" Heaven and earth shall pass away," the Atlantic 
cable shall be snapped asunder when worlds are 
wrecked and stars are shaken from the firmament 
as ripe apples from the tree, "but the Word of the 
Lord shall not pass away." This line of inter- 
communication between God's throne and the 
sinner's heart shall forever be kept open. The 
connecting chain of eternal love has no flaw, and is 
well secured at both extremities. Divinity charges 
the wire, and humanity is quickened to instant 
response. The atonement is complete. The one 
Mediator pleads and prevails. Bless the Lord ! the 
one way, the sure way, the safe way, the quick way, 
the living way, is open now, and,this moment, whoso- 
ever will may put himself in communication with 
the invisible world. The life-apparatus of a human 
heart can, by a touch, take off a message an} r where 

along the wire. Send up a telegram of prayer, and 

21- 



322 



Common Things. 



receive a benediction in response ! The spirit of 
the Lord God flashes in thrills of love along this 
blessed wire of his Word. Currents of holy sympa- 
thy run to and fro, throbbing from the Redeemer's 
great heart in heaven, and touching penitent 
sinners' hearts on earth. So swift are the com- 
munications, that, were one sinner to read the 
pardoning message beating its sweet meaning 
against his heart just now, repent and believe, 
there would instantly be joy in heaven among the 
angels of light. Wherever heaven is — however far 
away — though it should be high over the fields of 
starry space, beyond the highest sun — though its 
crystal pavements should overlie the dome of the 
firmament — wherever it is, there is a line of re- 
sponsive communication between that bright world 
and our own, and the moment a poor sinner listens 
to the " still small voice" of the Spirit speaking 
the good tidings of joy to his soul, that very 
moment the angels strike their harps of gold and 
begin their exultant song, and fly singing and 
harping from height to height, and from sphere to 
sphere, through all the Beautiful Place, until the 
host of redeemed ones hear the news, and join the 



Two Worlds made One. 



328 



celestial music in very joy over the salvation of 
that one sinner who repenteth ! 

" Through the harsh noises of our day 
A low, sweet prelude finds its way ; 
Through clouds of doubt and creeds of fear, 
A light is breaking, calm and clear. 
That song of love, now low and far, 
Ere long shall swell from star to star! 
That light, the breaking day, which tips 
The golden-spired Apocalypse!" 



f»2rft III. 
FRATERNAL METHODISM: 



Addresses 

DELIVERED AT THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL GENERAL 
CONFERENCE, BALTIMORE, 1876; 

PRIMITIVE METHODIST, METHODIST NEW CONNEC- 
TION, UNITED METHODIST FREE CHURCHES, 
AND WESLEYAN CONFERENCES OF 
ENGLAND, 1876; 

AND 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH SOUTH, 
LOUISVILLE, 1874, AND ATLANTA, 1878; 

INCLUDING ALSO 



A BRIEF ADDRESS IN BEHALF OF THE METHODIST PROT- 
TESTANT CHURCH TO PRESIDENT HAYES 
AT THE WHITE HOUSE, 1877. 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



At the suggestion of many friends, representing the 
various branches of Methodism in this country and in Great 
Britain, the following addresses are included as an Appendix 
to the present edition of " The Gospel in the Trees." 

For, indeed, the several distinct organizations of evan- 
gelical Christianity are as the trees of an orchard. They all 
bear fruit to the honor and glory of God. There may be 
differences of leaf and blossom, of stature and form, and 
flavor of fruit; but the life which makes unity in variety so 
beautiful, and the harvest of fruit so bountiful, is divine. 

The occasions which prompted the sentiments here ex- 
pressed were rare and delightful; the responses elicited were 
sincere and hearty; the memories of the gracious commun- 
ion spirit which consecrated those fraternal hours, at home 
and abroad, are very precious still. 

Should a word of apparent denominational pride or exul- 
tation appear anywhere in these addresses, it will be readily 
excused as the message of an ecclesiastical individuality 
quite incompetent to announce itself in the superabounding 
fraternity. 

The addresses here are somewhat abridged, the statistical 
and merely local and incidental mention, pertinent at the 
time of delivery, but of less interest now, are mostly omitted 
in this publication. The current of thought, however, as 
presented at the respective venerable assemblies, is, in the 
main, unbroken. 

327 



328 



Introductory Note. 



The kindly introductions, at the several conferences, the 
responses which greeted the messenger as he spoke, and the 
generous reciprocal utterances which followed — utterances 
of loving regard and esteem for the Church represented — 
all of which were reported by the papers of the day, are 
needed to complete this portraiture of Methodistic fraternity; 
but a volume would be required to embody the whole. 

It is, perhaps, presumptuous to allow this partial presen- 
tation of a subject so like a song of many voices, but even 
the key and monotone are a hint of the music. 

To change the figure: The reader may possibly excuse 
the gathering of the fragments, after the feast, when assured 
that the baskets by the lakeside, yonder, were full of better 
bread. 

A. C. 

Pittsburgh, Pa., February 22, 1878. 



Address 



TO THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST EPIS- 
COPAL CHURCH, BALTIMORE, MAY 10, 1876. 

Mr. President, — I regret exceedingly that the 
delegation whose communication has just been 
read are not present in person. They have been 
providentially detained after starting on their 
journey to the Conference. Judge Collier, one of 
the messengers, for aught I know, may be in the 
room, and probably Drs. Scott and Cowl will be 
present before the Conference adjourns, to speak 
for themselves. I feel loath to occupy the precious 
time of the Conference at this hour; and yet, dear 
brethren, j'ou will permit me to add a supple- 
mental word to the address already read. 

The fraternal address which has been presented 
comes warm and fresh from the hearts of breth- 
ren who are eminent in the Church, and who, had 
they been present, would have w T armed other 
loyal hearts by their speech. The address, as you 
will perceive, breathes the true fraternal spirit, 
and is not gauged by sectarian or sectional lines. 
It is honest, sincere, unreserved, hopeful of a 
larger liberality and a closer intimacy of souls in 
the entire Methodistic brotherhood. 

We rejoice, Mr. President, in your wonderful 

331 



332 Fraternal Methodism. 



prosperity; for, after all, the agency, however or- 
ganized, which embodies most truth and saves 
most souls, is most worthy of the people's faith. 
Your signal triumphs in our own and foreign 
lands, your flourishing literary and educational 
institutions, and your fearless advocacy of human 
rights, are examples to all younger and smaller 
branches of the family whose common name we 
bear. 

I do not presume to speak, Mr. President, for 
the majority of our denomination, but personally 
I venture to say this day, and in this presence, 
that I favor " absorption." Not exactly as my be- 
loved friend, Dr. Curry, Advocated two or three 
years ago, but rather the absorption of all alienat- 
ing and disturbing elements by Love. [Applause.] 
I would have episcopacy absorbed by Methodism, 
polity absorbed by grace, color lines lost in the 
sunshine of a blessed brotherhood [applause] ; 
that henceforth in the Gospel unity we might 
not need such auxiliary phrases as "Episcopal" 
or "Protestant," "South" or "African," "Free" 
or "Primitive," "Independent" or "Wesleyan," 
as local definers. The grand old generic word 
"'Methodist" names us all with sufficient definite- 
ness, and is a worthy appellation. For, in all the 
essentials of doctrine, you and we and all of ug 
are one and indivisible. On the divine side of 
the question, which is the chief side and front, 



Methodist Episcopal Church. 333 



there is no difference, no alienation, no discord 
whatever. We get the same experience at our 
altars; we tell the same story at our class-meet- 
ings; we are thrilled by the same hymns at home 
and abroad ; we share a common interest, engage 
in a common work, and the Holy Spirit himself 
bears witness with our spirits that we are the chil- 
dren of God. Herein is our method — not that we 
differ in policy, but that we agree in faith, in 
work, in love, and in life. Toward heaven we all 
bear the same image, and are being changed by 
the ages from glory into glory, from liberty into 
liberty, from power into power, as by the Spirit 
of the Lord. All missionary gain we claim in 
common, and desire in common to promote. All 
achievements in moral reform, in education, in lit- 
erature, we would humbly share; for in these 
things we could not be "disintegrated" if we 
tried. We preach the same Gospel in the same 
way. In all best things we are one. In highest 
thoughts and in deepest feelings we are a unit, 
the whole world over and in heaven forever. 
Methodism has but one heart. Its life is thrown 
into the world's extremities from the same vital 
center. And therefore every Methodist claims 
every other Methodist as kin, and intuitively says 
" brother " as he takes his hand. Then, if we be 
brethren already, our household of faith is a divine 
structure, and this is our common home. 



334 



Fraternal Methodism. 



Our interests are identical — eternally so. We 
dare not draw distinctive lines, or even imagine 
shades of essential differences in our doctrinal 
basis. The Presbyterian family differ in theolog- 
ical interpretations. — in psalmody, in conditions 
of communion; the Baptist family differ in respect 
of days, formularies, and feasts; the Lutheran 
family differ touching sacred ordinances; the Epis- 
copalian family differ in doctrinal interpretations — 
each one showing a confusion of household faiths; 
but the Methodist family hold precisely the same 
doctrines, observe precisely the same usages, and 
tell precisely the same old story 

u Of Jesus and his love." [Applause.] 

The only divergence is on the human or polity 
side of tilings; not in things of the Spirit. It is 
the kingdom of heaven upon earth to see eye to 
eye and face to face, and to know, even here 
among the shadows, as we are known. Blessed 
be God for such unity of faith as this! 

We show differences only on the governmental 
or expediency side of the question. And here our 
opinions should be always moderated by what 
shines through from the heavenly side. We differ 
in our local agencies for carrying forward the 
same work. We are slightly unlike in temporal 
affairs. Surely there is no cause here for any 
strife of bitter words, for any troubling of enlight- 



Methodist Episcopal Church. 335 



ened consciences, for any waste of ink or blood 
in controvers} 7 . While we, as matters expedient, 
maintain separate organizations, we recognize the 
conscience, the manhood, and the divine endow- 
ment of other branches than our own. We would 
make music together by playing upon the black 
keys and the white, by the same hands; by press- 
ing the pedals down among the baser political 
and commercial interests of humanity; using all 
men and all conditions, all circumstances, ranging 
every -where, singing and making melody in our 
hearts unto the Lord. 

We greet you heart to heart in the Gospel 
spirit, on God's side of Methodism — on the upper, 
the heavenly side — while we greet you hand in 
hand in the common work before us, and always 
foot to foot in Lhe itinerant march by which we 
hope to conquer the whole world to Christ. 
[Applause.] 

We rejoice to know that you now recognize 
the principle of lay representation, which was 
magnified by our fathers of 1828; but we never- 
theless feel more really united to you in the spirit 
of our grander fathers of 1739, when Wesley and 
his coadjutors made possible by their doctrinal 
reformation all these lesser and more recent good 
things which we are sometimes pleased to call 
reforms. 

We would not have you, dear brethren, confuse 



336 



Fraternal Methodism. 



your present harmonious movement in tbo least, 
to make room for the least of us who might be 
less happy and free if organically with you, nor 
can we promise to yield our congenial and satis- 
factory system, which holds our people in the 
bonds of peace, and promises so much for the 
present and the future, for the sake of a more 
popular or powerful combination. You love us 
too well for that. We hail you on the march as 
an army whose officers are loyal and heroic [turn- 
ing to Bishop Janes], and whose soldiery are a 
unit for tearing down the strongholds of sin. Our 
flag is the same; our great Captain is the same — 
the Lord of Hosts — and we expect not to divide 
our forces in the field, but to divide our laurels in 
the great day of eternal peace. [Applause.] 



Address. 

V T0 THE PRIMITIVE METHODIST CONFERENCE, NEWCASTLE- 
ON-TYNE, ENGLAND, JUNE 10, 1876. 

Mr. President and Brethren. — This is the first 
time, I think, that any one of the younger and minor 
Methodist bodies of the United States of America 
has had the privilege of greeting, officially, by 
fraternal messenger, either of the Methodist bodies 
of England. This to me is a pleasure and an 
honor of which I feel myself unworthy; but in 
the Master's name, and with a bounty of Chris- 
tian love as broad and deep as the sea which has 
divided us, I am here this day to fulfill the com- 
mission assigned to me by the authorities of the 
Methodist Church. [Applause.] I bring you glad 
tidings of great joy, for we are a happy people at 
home — united, free, full of hope and courage in 
Gospel work; and "the best of all is, God is with 
us." [Cheers.] Although a stranger in a strange 
land, I am conscious of fellow-citizenship with 
you in this Methodist household of faith. Your 
history, character, and influence are known to us. 
You have, from the first, during your full three- 
score and ten years, represented primitive Chris- 
tianity — sincere, patient, robust, and agressive. 

Our Master's was largely an out-door ministry. 

He was born in a manger, for there was no room 
22 337 



338 



Fraternal Methodism. 



at the inn. His baptism, temptation, transfigura- 
tion, and crucifixion all occurred without, under 
no roof but that of the sky. Many of his ser- 
mons, prayers, and miracles were out-door exer- 
cises. That little picture of the wagon and the 
common people on the first page of the Primitive 
Methodist is a far more beautiful emblem than 
any gilded cross that ever dazzled on the tiptop 
of a steeple or glared in embroidery on the robes 
of a priest. [Applause.] The cross on t which 
Jesus died was not far from the ground. It was 
not gilded for the eye; it was stained with blood. 
His own dear mother and the poor dying thief 
together looked toward the cross; but it was the 
crucified one they beheld, and not the cross; it 
was the blood they saw, and not the wood. And 
we commemorate the blood when, as believers, we 
commune together. We worship the dying, living 
Lamb of God, and preach him to sinners wherever 
we find them — in the crowded city, or in the 
wilderness, of whatever class or complexion or 
circumstances. And wherever we find the worst 
sinners we bear to them the richest, fullest, grand- 
est Gospel of all. Down in the darkest places the 
light of the world shines with brightest beams. 
In your out- door services abroad among the peo- 
ple, where they toil and where they are tempted 
and troubled, you show a real power, which the 
Gospel honors, and which this poor world most 



Primitive Methodist Connection. 339 



needs to-day. You go with the message of salva- 
tion to the masses, while others wait and wonder 
why the masses do not co:ne for the message to 
the cathedral and the chapel. One of your min- 
isters, Dr. Antliff, has come as near filling the 
command, "Go into all the world and preach, " as 
any Methodist I ever knew; for here he is, just 
home from America, having traversed our wide 
land to the Pacific coast, then beyond to the 
islands of the sea, to Australia and afar. No 
wonder j t ou welcome to Conference such a valiant 
embassador of the Lord Jesus. He was in such 
haste going through our country that he had not 
time even to stop and shake hands with kindred 
Methodisms in our smoky city. From beyond 
the Atlantic eager e}^es have watched your move- 
ments with delighted interest, and many a prayer 
has ascended from the Western World for the suc- 
cess of the principles you avow and the methods 
you employ. Something of your literature reaches 
us toward the setting sun. Some of your people 
emigrate to our shores; and we get tidings of you 
from time to time as we turn our eyes eastward 
to the morning; and we are anxious to know you 
better, and to show you more of our fraternal 
interest and regard. Hence this errand which I 
am commissioned by the authorities of our Church 
to perform. The great ocean rolls between us, 
but wide and manageless as it is, our Father holds 



310 



Fraternal Methodism. 



it in the hollow of his band; and he who is so 
mighty will sustain his children all, and bind all 
true believers in a covenant of faith and peace. 

1 come to you, brethren, this day in the name 
of Christ our Lord, bearing the good will of fifty 
thousand kindred Methodists. And fifty thousand 
more — whose history is identical with our own, 
temporarily separated from us, but soon, we confi- 
dently hope, to be of us and with us again — stand 
ready to greet you as heartily as ourselves. In 
behalf of liberal Methodism in America I say to 
you, All hail ! [Hearty applause.] Ours is a young 
Church and comparatively small. Our record be- 
gins, as a separate organization, less than half a 
century ago. The reason of our distinct existence 
is something like the reason for your own — it lodges 
in a sacred, primitive principle, a Bible right, as 
we believe, namely, that of common equality be- 
tween ministers and laymen in all questions of 
conscience, interpretation, and suffrage. Our fel- 
low-citizenship knows no classes, no color, no pre- 
latical orders, no respect of persons. We are all 
one in Christ. On this divine foundation, inherent 
in man's first and second birth, and sanctified by 
his adoption into the kingdom and patience of Je- 
sus Christ, our people together live and move, and 
work, and have a common joy. Our ministers are 
equal in prerogative and power. If one is a bishop, 
so are all bishops ! We accept the primitive Gospel 



Primitive Methodist Connection. 341 



economy, broad enough for an itinerant host, pro- 
found enough for angels to look into and proclaim, 
as fellow-messengers with flesh and blood — the 
power of God unto salvation. [Cheers.] Our 
fathers, in 1828, for advocating this principle of 
lay representation and ministerial equality, were 
obliged to retire from the communion of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church; and, therefore, no choice 
was left them but to reorganize, according to the 
New Testament, as Methodists without the episco- 
pacy — as Methodists protesting against episcopal 
supremacy and assumption. They asked for the 
primitive order and usages. It was called a radi- 
cal movement. So it was ; but radical is a good 
word. It means right in the root, right all the 
way from root to branch, from bud to fruit, right 
and righteousness forever. By faith those worthy 
men, our Stockton, Shinn, Waters, Barnes, Brown, 
Evans, Springer, and others — such heroes as your 
own Bourne, Clowes, Flesh er, Sanderson, [cheers] 
Towler, and their fellows, insisted upon a polit}', 
at once radical and primitive, in harmony with the 
original reformation at Oxford; and our Church 
occupies that ground to this day. 

That the movement toward freedom in 1828 
was right, the subsequent history of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in our own country proves to 
ample satisfaction, for now the same principle of 
lay- representation has been recognized by the 



342 



Fraternal Methodism. 



mother Church, and to a hopeful degree incorpo- 
rated in her book of discipline. Even the beloved 
and venerable grandmother of us all, bless her ! 
[applause] over here in England, has put on her 
spectacles to examine this question, and as she 
looks at it in the light of the latter day her coun- 
tenance is almost transfigured and her voice is 
sweet as music while she talks it over to herself. 
Erelong the whole world's Methodism may be 
thoroughly leavened by this elevating power. The 
laity are coming to stand eye to eye and face to 
face with the ministry in love, in trust, in toil, and 
in peace. You have outdone us twice over, for 
you admit two laymen to one minister — one on 
each side of him — and, perhaps, another before 
and another behind will be better still for you, for 
this is royal, good timber. "Whether our Kepub- 
Jican Methodists could stand up comfortably in 
such a press of good things I do not know, I am 
afraid our Yankee brethren might rebel, notwith- 
standing the cloth. I hope no minister in your 
Connection may even imagine any un ordained epis- 
copacy from the other side of the house. The 
]ait}7, male and female, are loyal, and the ministry 
may trust a sound Methodist with the ballot any- 
where. [ u They may."] 

In your own country this subject excites unusual 
attention at the present moment. Only last Tues- 
day, at an important meeting of leading Wesley- 



Primitive Methodist Connection. 343 



ans at the Mission-house in Bishopsgate Street, 
London, the question of lay-representation was 
earnestly considered. Even the London Times has 
discussed the subject by a column leader, and 
recognized the justice and expedieney of the move- 
ment. [Cheers.] It should not be called an inno- 
vation, for it is a primitive principle, as old as the 
apostleship itself. You have seen the result of 
Tuesday's meeting. It is a foretaste of good things 
to come. This is the action, adopted without a 
dissenting voice: "In the opinion of this meeting 
the time has now come when a comprehensive 
plan should be devised for some direct and ade- 
quate representation of the laity in the transaction 
of the business of the conference. " [Loud applause.] 
There is peace among our American Methodists 
of all divisions, except that they all make war 
upon the devil and his kingdom. The days of 
denominational controversy arc well-nigh ended. 
Fraternity prevails; the millennium draws near! At 
Bound Lake, in New York State, every Summer the 
various Methodisms unite in a grand camp-meeting. 
It is a pentecost, for the people are of one accord 
in one place. All over the country each branch 
of Methodism looks lovingly upon each other as 
a worthy member of the family. There may be 
slight differences of apparel, or in brogue or man- 
ners ; each may choose the part to be sung, or make 
choice of key-note at the outstart. But wher- 



344 Fraterxal Methodism. 



ever Methodists open their mouths to speak the 
words (and they do open their mouths!) it is 

"Blest be the tie that binds 

Our hearts in Christian love; 
The fellowship of kindred minds 
Is like to that above." [Applause.] 

One branch strikes up the soprano, another branch 
takes alto, another branch joins in on the treble, 
and all the other branches, and even Presbyterians 
and Baptists, sing bass. The parts are different, 
but the music is one. The voices are unlike, but 
the joy is the same. And so American Methodism 
is making melody in her glad heart unto the Lord. 
Here and there a discontented spirit, or a chronic 
iconoclast, may strike a discordant note, like some 
Alexander the coppersmith, banging a gong into 
the anthem of sweet sound, vexing the understand- 
ing, and the spirit also; but the happy majority 
sing the louder and love the more, until the dis- 
turbance is chorded into harmony in the over- 
whelming praise. [Applause.] Xot that honest 
inquiry is discouraged; not that reform is at an 
end; not that conscience is stifled: but rather 
that bigotry may be silenced, contention hushed 
to peace, and all unholy wrangling quieted forever. 
"While the various Methodisms are distinct and 
independent in their appointments and agencies, 
in doctrine they are a unit. They really supple- 
ment each other in matters of expediency and pol- 



Primitive Methodist Connection. 345 



ity; they perhaps help each other, and stimulate 
each other to good works ; and so we hope to keep 
harps and voices in tune until we join in the mil- 
lennial hymn wken Jesus comes. [" Glory."] We 
deplore the waste occasioned by sectarian strife. 
The world lying in wickedness all about us looks 
for symmetry, as well as beauty and safety., in the 
temple of the Holy Ghost. If the visible Church 
is ever to win sinners out of darkness, there must 
be light in every window, music in every room, 
welcome from every quarter. We must be one in 
spirit and in truth, even as Christ and God are one. 

Hitherto 1 fear too much time and money have 
been squandered in rearing middle walls of parti- 
tion. The distinctive differences have been mag- 
nified, and the essential unities have been minified. 
Christians have been taking down the wall be- 
tween the Church and the world, and building its 
removed materials into the inner walls which sep- 
arate the mansions of our Father's house. And 
so, in some scientifically reconstructed places, the 
outer wall is so low that the Church and the 
world grow common crops of weeds across the 
ruins. Let us reverse this sad disorder. Let us 
rather reduce the inner walls, and open windows 
and doors through them, that the sects may see 
more of each other; and let there be no yielding 
of the outer strongholds against sin and Satan. 
From without none may enter except by the open 



346 Fraternal Methodism. 



door, which is Christ. We dishonor the Crucified 
when we attempt to lift sinners, sins and all, over 
broken-down outer walls. They must enter by 
the door, and leave their sins outaide. But whoso- 
ever is the password, and it is no secret; " Whoso- 
ever will may come." [Applause.] And whoever 
may vote himself into the kingdom of heaven is 
surely competent to vote on all other religious 
questions! [Cheers.] A Methodism which denies 
suffrage is radically unmethodistic ! There is some- 
thing within the heart of an acorn which means 
oak — oak in bud, oak in leaf, oak in fiber, oak in 
strength, in majesty — oak forever. There is never 
any murmur in the foliage, hesitating about the 
fashion of leaf to assume, the shape of acorn to 
adopt, or the texture of timber to allow. The in- 
ner life holds all the outward and future conditions 
in itself, and finds the fit expression by and by. 
The acorn rises out of the earth imbued with the 
necessary forces to get up into the oak tree fully. 
There is no danger at all that it shall soften its 
heart and become poplar, or dilly-d:illy into a vine, 
or droop into a weeping willow. And so with the 
Christian. When Christ is within him, the secret 
source of his life; when the Divine Lord abideth 
in the human soul, there must be consecration, zeal, 
beauty, power, the image of the Master, and the 
graces of the Spirit. The priests go up into the 
gorgeous earthly temple once or twice a week to 



Primitive Methodist Connection. 347 



officiate, to exhibit pomp and power; the Divine 
Trinity comes down into our believing souls to 
abide with us evermore. He abides with us. [" He 
does!"] That is what the new life implies. A 
truly converted soul rises up into the likeness and 
power of Jesus Christ. The outwards regulate 
themselves in harmony with a law of life more po- 
tent than that which holds the acorn to consis- 
tency in rising into an oak. 

This is primitive Christianity, radical religion. 
It begins at the beginning and compasses all pos- 
sibilities. It gets outward into the expedients 
after it has possessed the essentials within. It 
grows into all beauty and fruitfulness from a new 
creation. It conforms all exterior things to that 
which is inherent in the renewed spirit. It regu- 
lates the language by first regulating the motives 
back of all utterance ; it beautifies the conduct by 
beautifying the character; it guards the reputation 
by guarding the emotions, faculties, affections, and 
conscience. And this is Methodism, if I apprehend 
it. If this be your faith, we greet you heart to 
heart! When souls are in accord there must be 
music on the lips. When there is an experience 
of pardoned sin, there must be a telling of the 
story. When the substance itself is comely, there 
will be comeliness in the shadow. Brethren, we 
greet you not merely in form, but in spirit! We 
greet you in the name of Jesus Christ, the renewer 



348 



Fraternal Methodism. 



of fallen nature, the restorer of lost beauty, tlie 
Redeemer of ruined men! And the Methodist 
Church of America prays for you that your zeal 
may never languish, that your faith may never 
waver, that your feet may never stumble in the 
blessed work to which you have been called. 
Let this courage of yours never falter, nor your 
devotion cease; for this is the Gospel of the grace 
of God; and by this power in men the world is 
to be brought to Christ. [Cheers.] Herein is a 
force greater than that of all the Establishments 
that ever reared cathedrals, ritualized the ordi- 
nances, or surpliced the priesthood ;. greater than 
that of all schools and philosophies, of all princi- 
palities and powers. 

The other day I climbed up into the dome of 
St. Paul's cathedral. I tried High-churchism for 
an hour. Beneath me was a mountain of polished 
masonry. The immense dimensions of that mira- 
cle of architecture are nowhere seen to such ad- 
vantage as when the eye looks down upon the 
roofy hills, the cornices, the turrets, and the towers. 
The symmetry of St. Paul's is so perfect that, 
looked upon from the street on either side, its vast 
bulk is not realized. But from the outer porch of 
the upper dome the great city seems as a back- 
ground for the mighty building. I ascended to 
the hollow ball beneath the cross, on the top of 
the main dome, four hundred feet from the pave- 



Primitive Methodist Connection, 349 



ment. Through the narrow apertures between the 
gilded pillars which support the ball and cross the 
wind blew with furious sound, making the lofty 
framework tremble in its breath. The elevation 
was too great from which to see the city to satis- 
faction. The ugly roofs were visible, the chimney 
tops and the sooty side of every thing. But the 
people deep down in the grooves of the streets 
seemed as crickets. The fronts of stores and resi- 
dences, the trees and flowers of London, were 
beneath the range of vision. Then, inside the ball, 
higher still, into which one creeps by a perpen- 
dicular ascent, clinging as he climbs, all was ob- 
scured. The wind howled more dismally than 
ever. It was the gratification of an idle curiosity. 
It was no place for an American Methodist to be 
in. But I did go to the High Church ball, and 
heard the music. But there was neither room nor 
disposition to dance. And yet my bodily uplifting 
for the time was but suggestive of the ecjlesias- 
tical altitude of those who begin their ministry on 
the steps of cathedrals. They rise in darkened, 
winding ways. They get up into the wind on the 
masonry of human hands. To them the common 
people seem as grasshoppers, as inferior beings, as 
outsiders; and the homes and vocations of the poor 
sink utterly out of sight. High-churchism looks 
out only upon steeples, palace heights, and gilded 
crosses. It is a chill wind that blows across the 



350 



Fraternal Methodism. 



domes. [Applause.] And when men rise still 
higher and higher and get themselves wedged into 
the brazen ball of the Establishment, where there 
is room for about one well-fed prelate of London's 
four millions of people, then the vision is shut off 
altogether, and strange prayers are sent up towards 
the divine dignitary of the ball as if he were a 
God ! But St. Paul's is a wonderful cathedral. 
Paul, the tent-maker, never dreamed of such a pile, 
and would hardly be permitted to preach in it; 
Paul is too primitive in his methods for Ludgato 
Hill. But it monuments great dust. It stands as 
a marvel of mechanical skill, and as such is worthy 
of unbounded admiration. But as a Gospel gate, 
it forbids rather than invites; it is costly but com- 
fortless; it is sublime, but it is the sublimity of an 
iceberg. 1 was not happy until I came down to 
the streets, and looked at men level, face to face. 
Let us not imitate cathedral ministries. The Gos- 
pel is to be preached [hear, hear], not cut in 
granite or carved in brass. The New Testament 
temples are men and women — most glorious edi- 
fices; for these are the habitation of the Holy 
Ghost. The abbeys and cloisters are for the bones 
of dead royalty ; but these bodies of living flesh 
and blood are the dwelling-place of the Father, and 
the Son, and the Spirit. Their abode is with men. 

You are right, brethren, in your out-door evan- 
gelization, in your chapel work, in your printing 



Primitive Methodist Church. 351 



presses, your schools, your colleges, your home and 
Sunday-school training. This is more substantial 
masonry than that of cathedral- makers. You are 
building honors unto God, and not to Peter or to 
Paul. [Cheers.] * * * * 

Our chief joy at present is in the prospect of a 
speedy reunion with the Methodist Protestant 
Church, our southern self, from which we have 
been separated for eighteen years by the shadow 
that darkened our land so long; and which, at last, 
the lightnings of civil war have forever cleared 
away. I refer to slavery. [Loud applause.] Not 
that our Southern brethren believed in human 
bondage or advocated it, but that they were so 
situated in the midst of the curse as to be almost 
helpless under its strange power; and now they 
rejoice with us that the bondman is free. I rejoice 
to know that there are consecrated ministers in 
this Conference, who have gone into crowded cities 
and under the shadows of great establishments, 
and into the ranks of infidelity and sin, have 
preached the Word to the people on the streets and 
out on the moors, and have toiled on until they 
succeeded in erecting chapels and presenting them 
to the Connection free of debt. That is preaching. 
Would that we had more such men in America. 
God help you more and more ! ["Amen."] We 
ask your prayers. Wiien your people come to the 
United States, to any part where you have no or- 



352 



Fraternal Methodism, 



ganization, they will find a congenial home among 
us. Nothing would delight us more than to receive 
a fraternal delegation from your venerable body to 
our next General Conference. Your messengers 
shall have hearty greeting. By that good time we 
expect to show a united Methodist Protestant or- 
ganization, and shall pray that our numbers be not 
less than a hundred and forty and four thousand. 
Already we claim to be one with you in all things 
generous, charitable, loving, and pure; asking that 
our graces be multiplied day by day. May your 
future be even more glorious and exultant than 
your past, and when the sea shall be no more, 
when death itself is dead, when toils and tears are 
no more remembered, may we all rest, our itiner- 
ant work well done; may we rest and renew our 
acquaintance as immortal sons of God in our Fa- 
ther's house on high! 

11 Jesus, in that last great day, 
Come thou down and touch my clay ; 

Speak the word, Arise ! 
Friend to gladsome friend restore, 
Living, praising, evermore, 

Above the skies." 



Address 



TO THE METHODIST NEW CONNECTION CONFERENCE, DEWS- 
BURY, ENGLAND, JUNE 15, 1876. 

Fathers and Brethren in the Gospel, — Grace, 
mercy, and peace. Amen. 

It is with no little embarrassment I appear in 
your presence this day, for I come as a stranger 
from a distant land and alone, a messenger to your 
venerable body from the youngest branch of the 
Methodist family, in the Western world. But I 
am here in the Master's name to greet this emi- 
nently Scriptural organization of believers in the 
land where Methodism had its birth. 

I regret exceedingly that my beloved brother, 
your countryman, the Kev. Edward Sellon, of Illi- 
nois, appointed by our last General Conference to 
bear fraternal greetings, has been hindered from 
the performance of a duty so cheerfully and with 
such unanimity committed to him by his brethren, 
for his eloquent words and genial spirit would have 
been to you as the voice and charm of a returning 
relative to the old home door; and you would have 
circled around him for glad tidings and been made 
happy, I am sure, by his presence. But, in the 
order of Providence, 1 am here as his substitute, 
and by the same authorit} r , a sort of Brother Jona- 
than without his royal David, yet with a heart as 

23 353 



35-4 



Fraternal Methodism. 



full of fraternity as it can be, and as a fellow-citi- 
zen of the household of faith, sharing the exper- 
ience "which makes you all rejoice together in heav- 
enly places in Christ Jesus, and with the hope 
that you, the oldest Beformed branch, and we, the 
youngest and nearest of kindred to you, may come 
to know each other more perfectly, and thus be 
enabled by divine grace and mutual sympathy 
to bring greater honor to Christ our Head, and 
nearer communion and helpfulness to each other, 
and to all who would be free in deed and in truth. 

Methodism, as a distinct vine, was planted on 
your soil. Here it has taken deep root, grown, 
branched, and borne fruit to the glory of God. 
But the vine has vitality for continents as well as 
for islands, for republics as well as for kingdoms, 
for all zones as well as for the congenial clime of 
Britain. A true scion from the original vine, and 
by the same right hand, was transplanted in the 
western wilderness more than a hundred years ago, 
and that, too. has taken deep root, grown, branched 
again, blossomed, and borne fruit like yours, an 
hundred fold. But by some singular condition of 
the atmosphere or sea, the branch which was 
transplanted in America put forth strange leaves 
at first. The grapes were sweet to the taste, but 
the foliage was like the ivy which climbs about 
old abbeys and castles. There was a freak of na- 
ture. The vine-branch in our rich ground ran too 



Methodist New Connection, 355 



much to leaf and produced a bishop. And this, 
too, in a republic! Was it not a freak of nature? 

Well such has been the result of something or 
other in Methodism which, perhaps, John Wesley 
himself did not foresee. This abnormal growth, 
while drawing considerable vitality out of the 
branch, has not seriously injured the vintage after 
all, for millions of happy souls have been saved 
by the Methodist Episcopal Church. May bene- 
dictions rest upon her henceforth and forever! 
The fruits of Methodism are the same on both 
sides of the sea — yes, on both sides of the grave 
the same. They are sweeter than honey and the 
honej'-comb, rich and abundant in all seasons, and 
the clusters hang low, offering refreshment and 
strength to all. The holy ones of heaven pluck 
grapes that ripen in the eternal sunshine. The 
poorest ones of earth may reach forth and partake 
to their comfort. Angels and children share in 
the feast, and Christ himself is in the joy. 

Brethren, we may rejoice together this day be- 
fore God, in the wonderful success which has at- 
tended the itinerant ministry of the Word, hi 
our country, as in your own, and now, as in the 
Gospel days at the beginning, glad tidings are 
proclaimed to all people. Faithful men go forth — 
go forth, preparing the way of the Lord. They go 
with no more thought of fine salaries than John 
the Baptist had when locusts and wild honey were 



356 



Fraternal Methodism. 



his hire. They go, as we have heard from Dr. 
Kyerson this day, they go far, they go willingly. 
They return again, and again they go forth, guided 
by Him who moves the stars along, and like the 
stars to shine, the circuit heralds of the morning. 
They go forth, preaching, bearing witness, singing, 
praying, toiling among the people, living the Gos- 
pel they proclaim. Such ministers we know. They 
are a flaming fire ! Methodism lives, as primitive 
Christianity began to live and continues to live, 
by the vital power of an aggressive ministry en- 
dowed with the Holy Ghost and with fire sent 
down from heaven. This going forth to every 
creature with the sweet story of the cross, with 
personal consecration, with patience, faith, and the 
witness of the Spirit — this is the power which 
overcomes the world. "The world," as Wesley 
said, " is our parish." " Go ye," said a greater 
than Wesley, "and teach all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost, and lo ! I am with you 
al way, even to the end of the world." That is 
the original Methodist commission, authorizing the 
itinerancy, and making promise of the superin- 
tendency of the Divine Spirit. Jesus Christ is the 
Shepherd and Bishop of all souls, overseeing all, 
helping all, loving all, and blessing all. 

Christianity is unit}^. It is many in One, and 
One in many. It is liberty, it is light, and life, 



Methodist New Connection. 357 



and peace. It is power, and it works by love. 
The vine is Christ. "I am the vine." He said: 11 ye 
are the branches." Every living vine has branches. 
It spreads out, enlarges, gets aloft, and gets down, 
until it quite covers the trellis which was framed 
for it. Human formularies, theologies, confessions 
of faith, books of discipline, organizations, if you 
venture with me so far, are but trellises. They 
may be necessary for a purpose; they may be very 
beautiful. But they are made with hands. They 
are temporary and limited. They are built of meas- 
ured pieces. They endure but for a season. The 
vine outgrows the trellis, covers it over, drapes its 
dead wood by living leaves, and uses it only as a 
help to hang the fruit in every body's reach. God 
forbid that Ave should build our trellises too high ! 
We can not train this vine's branches to climb 
into cathedrals, or carry a cluster of grapes into 
the towering hollow crosses of steeples and domes. 
It is a lowly vine, and offers its choicest fruits to 
the children and to the poor. But if it rise not so 
high, oh, how widely it does spread ! So it proves 
its own life. The vine is one forever. The branches, 
if united to the vine, although distinct, although 
sundered by intervening seas, complement each 
other, and form perfect symmetry, showing a com- 
mon beauty in the leaf which attests the inherent 
character of the fruit. It ripens evermore into 
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- 



358 



Fraternal Methodism, 



ness, faith, meekness, temperance. And against 
these there is no law. No Greenland is too cold, 
nor any Sahara desert too hot for the coming of 
the vintage. The world is the vineyard. These 
are the evidences of Christianity. These are the 
testimonies of Methodism. They are not so much 
bound up in books as they are radiated in lives. 
They are not so well developed in cloisters and 
by rubrics, as they are shown by the common 
people in their dailj T walk and conversation. In 
the doctrines of Methodism, all the various branches 
are one. On the heavenly side of the question 
there is no difference. Up in our spiritual sky one 
rainbow, over against the departing clouds, arches 
in benedictions above us all. We but occupy the 
different fields of our chosen toil. We all breathe 
the same atmosphere, drink from the same fount- 
ain, and go in quest together, when we pray, 
"Give us this day our daily bread." 

The Savior's own simile bears elaboration. You 
know the leaf of the vine by its outward confor- 
mation and its texture, not by its weight or meas- 
urement. Our expedients, our policies, our formu- 
laries, may slightly differ. The leaves of our books 
of discipline may not edge together precisely, or 
page in exact order, or be printed in the same font 
of type, or contain the same distinct words and 
methods. But take any leaf from any one of the 
several books of Methodist discipline, and you 



Methodist New Connection. 359 



know at a glance that such leaf was never bound 
in a prayer-book, that it matches badly with some 
things in Heidelberg and worse with Westminster. 
You intuitively discern the difference between the 
vine-leaf and that of a sycamore, or elm, or pine. 
Methodist usages may be called the foliage. For, 
after all, usages are about the only denominational 
distinctions which can be reduced to uniformity. 
You know them at a glance. They are the same 
in Britain and in the States. They conform to the 
same general outline. They are veined and lined 
after a common law. They bear testimony to the 
vine. These outward shapes are for the eye. But 
the vine is the fruit-bearer. Pluck the grapes, 
and the taste is precisely the same in all zones of 
the earth. Wild grapes differ in their juices; but 
the fruit of the true vine is always sweet — always 
the same. Herein is life. Hereby is Christ wit- 
nessed. By our fruits, through the Divine abiding, 
are we known of each other and known of the 
angels in heaven. By our mere foliage the world 
may name us; but only by our fruits may we be 
known. If Christ be in us, our hope of glory, we 
have eternal life, even though the leaves are frosted 
by Winters which must come; even though our 
outward and mortal body drop into dust. The 
fruit of the vine endureth, though the leaves are 
withered. Christ is our life. We abide in him. 
And because he lives we shall live also. 



360 



Fraternal Methodism. 



True Methodism preaches this living Christ. 
We make no long journeys to find the tomb of 
Jesus. There is no grave which holds the body 
of our Lord. He lives ! And he gives life to the 
dead. We do not build cathedrals as sepulchers 
for saints. We go down among the dead in tres- 
passes and in sins, and we proclaim the resurrec- 
tion and the life. We believe in a religion that 
lives — that has a warm heart, a beating pulse, a 
clear eye, and uplifting arm — a religion, which, 
hearing the bugles of God calling to conflict, is 
ready, armed, equipped, disciplined, and marches 
forth conquering and to conquer. Methodism is 
Christianity alive — Christianity with brain and 
muscle, and heroism, alert to all the movements of 
the enemy; willing to die, but preferring to live; 
patient in tribulation, but quick and powerful in 
battle when the King's honor is assailed. And 
what kingdom was ever so besieged as ours! But 
Jesus reigns for evermore. We hail j'ou from the 
West, and, though but armor-bearers, 

u Firmly we stand, 
Waiting to follow at the King's command. 
Marching if ' Onward ! ' shall the order be, 
Standing by our Captain, serving faithfully 

[Applause.] 

Brethren, you have sent to us so many stalwart 
men, many of whom rank among our most efficient 
ministers and progressive people, that in behalf of 



Methodist New Connection. 361 



the Methodist Church I must thank you. Your 
loss has been our gain, and no obituary about it. 
[Laughter.] We welcome liberal Methodists from 
England. Our Church is so nearly like your own 
in polity and in purpose, that I can cordially in- 
vite yourselves, your children and your children's 
children to its fold. I feel some degree of temer- 
ity in this foreign land when I think of the geog- 
raphy of the situation. Three thousand miles of 
restless ocean separate our hither shores. I never 
imagined the greatness of the Atlantic until I had 
crossed it. But material things do not divide us. 
Ours is a spiritual kingdom. You say the sun 
never sets on Great Britain. And Great Britain 
stands for Protestantism, for the rights of con- 
science [applause], for culture, order, and for Chris- 
tian freedom. May her Gospel power increase, 
until the Churches of Christ, of every name, shall 
have equal rights before the law! Christianity, as 
a living vine, does not need any State trellis to 
support it. [No, no.] It does not flourish well 
when forced to be ivy, and merely to ornament 
the masonry of the Establishment. "We greet you 
in evangelistic labors. You, brethren of the sunlit 
kingdom, and we of the western republic, belong 
to that dominion upon which the Sun of right- 
eousness never sets. He still rises. It is always 
morning in time, and noon shall be eternity. By 
and by, all nations, tribes, and kindreds shall be 



362 Fraternal Methodism. 



the Lord's. Romanism wanes, Mohammedanism is 
confused ; but Christ increases, and he shall reign 
for ever and ever. [Applause.] 

I forget our outward differences. I look through 
foliage to fruifc this day. There is a heavenly 
principle which holds us all in unity, as gravita- 
tion holds into one Atlantic the billows of the sea. 
"When I look into your faces, touch your hands, 
hear your voices, catch your spirit, I realize the 
dear home joy, and there is an inward witnessing 
of brotherhood. 

Our Father's house has many mansions. An 
intervening door stood ajar this centennial year, 
toward an older apartment, and the curious stran- 
ger ventured to look in, to press his way through 
the unbolted door, and see the sunrise side of the 
old house. And here are kindred souls whose 
names have been household words. You have 
made room for the stranger. I shall try to repre- 
sent our civilization by being civil. [Laughter.] 
I may occasional^ do outlandish republican things, 
in your more cultured imagination. But I am 
more Scotch than Indian, for my mother was a 
M'Kenzie, from the Highlands. The very dearest 
friend I may presume to claim in this audience is 
a Savage* [loud laughter], but he belongs to Can- 
ada, one of your own British provinces. And I 

*Rev. David Savage, editor Guardian, Toronto, fraternal 
messenger from Canada, who was on the platform. 



Methodist New Connection. 363 



wish his tribe were a thousand more than it is. 
He has a Guardian at Toronto, and a lovely Rose 
in his garden sheds the fragrance of pure literature 
throughout the wilderness. 

To come back to this Conference, I declare to 
you, this day, I enjoy the whole house so far as I 
have seen it. The Primitive room, from which I 
have just come over from 2s~ewcastle-on-Tyne, is 
bright and clean with sunshine. As I stand upon 
the threshold of your apartment, the same light 
shines and the same joy abounds. The new man- 
sion on the west side of the house may be some- 
what rough at first sight; but it is large — im- 
mensely large. Our carpet is a magnificent design 
with patches of prairie of millions of acres, with 
threads of Platte and Mississippi crystal, leaf-work 
of lakes and Iringes of green forest; and we set 
ranges of mountain behind the door. We have 
room for a hundred million New Connection Meth- 
odists, whenever you choose to come and help us 
possess the land. We are a little lonesome; we 
need company; we long for neighbors and fellow- 
workers. Come over and see us, share our toil 
and joy, our sanctuaries and our songs. The door 
is now open toward you — wide open, and never 
shall be closed. You have a better furnished man- 
sion than we; you have older pictures about the 
walls, rarer relics and costlier books upon your 
shelves; you wear apparel a little finer and neater 



364 



Fraternal Methodism. 



than ours; you sit nearer together at the table, 
and may eat daintier fare than we. But over 
against all this, we mention our ample room, our 
opportunities and possibilities, and our sincere de- 
sire to know more of the Master's will. 

It is a significant fact that the Methodist Church 
of the United States should send greeting to the 
reformed branches in England during the very 
month when the original AVesleyan body.is so ear- 
nestly discussing lay representation. Even in the 
midst of our fraternity, as minor divisions with 
united Canadian Methodism with us too, we read 
the news that the preparatory committee, compris- 
ing some of the wisest Methodists in the kingdom, 
have unanimously decided in favor of " a direct 
and adequate representation of the laity in tiie 
transaction of the business of the Conference." 
[Applause.] And this very week, too, after fifteen 
years' preparation, two branches of the Presbyter- 
ian family in England have consolidated, and the 
Liverpool chapels and halls are crowded with 
happy witnesses of the consummation. And the 
new r s is here from my own country that the Nor- 
thern and the Southern branches of the Presby- 
terian Church have resumed fraternal relations, the 
first touch of right hands in fellowship since the 
Civil War. [Amen.] All these facts are rich in 
prophecy. Hearty fraternity and a recognition 
of equal and mutual rights are even better than 



Methodist New Connection. 365 



organic union. The day for united work has fully 
come. Oh ! let us work for Jesus ! 

At Darlington yesterday I was at the birth- 
place of railways — avenues of civilization. In 
these you excel us — for solidity of track, safety, 
and speed. But alongside all the way were more 
telegraph wires than I could count. And I felt a 
little proud of Franklin and Morse, as you do of 
Watt and Stephenson. About that very moment 
your tender fraternal message was thrilling its way 
along the wires to the Primitive Methodist Confer- 
ence which I had just left. [Reply to message 
just announced.] Railways for messengers of fra- 
ternity, and magnetic batteries, and you have one 
of your own under this very roof, are none too 
swift for the glad tidings of the latter day. Why, 
old Westminster Abbey, I see, has found a place 
for a memorial marble to Wesley; and Westmin- 
ster theology a place for an occasional Methodist 
exhortation. [Applause.] 

Permit a few statistical items. The Methodist 
Church of the United States, which I have the 
honor to represent, is that portion of the Meth- 
odist Protestant Church which occupies the North, 
the Bast, and the West of our country, the original 
body of which was organized in 1830, having been 
divided on the question of slavery in 1858. Both 
these branches adhered firmly to the principle of 
lay representation, however, and proved by their 



366 



Fraternal Methodism. 



prosperity, that liberal Methodism can flourish, 
even against unpropitious conditions; yes, and in 
a community preoccupied by a greatly stronger 
organization of the same doctrinal belief. I am 
happy to say that now, as the sad cause of the 
alienation of these two sections of the Church has 
been providentially removed, never to shame or 
trouble us any more, there is a prospect of reunion. 
Commissioners from each branch, in October, 1875, 
agreed upon a basis of permanent unification, 
which the annual conferences of each branch, it is 
believed, will adopt and commend, in the main, to 
the general and final convention. This blessed 
consummation is most devoutly to be wished, for 
our history is identical, and our interests, associa- 
tions, and purposes inseparable.* 

Together, the Methodist and Methodist Protest- 
ant Churches number about one hundred thou- 
sand members.f I might presume to speak of 
these two bodies as already one, anticipating the 
consolidation; but I have no authority to repre- 
sent the Southern division. That branch, I may 
say; informally, however, is a united, heroic, and 
faithful Church of Christ, exemplifying the pro- 
gressive principles which distinguish your own 
Connection, and is worthy of every good word 
which I may be permitted to speak for our own. 

* Reunion co summated in May, 1877. 
TNow, 1879, 130,000. 



Methodist New Connection. 367 



The Methodist Church contains some twenty 
annual conference districts, extending from New 
England to the Pacific coast; some of the far west- 
ward of which, however, are mission conferences, 
and comparatively feeble. But there are valiant 
missionaries in all of them, and the morning of 
prosperity draweth nigh. At Adrian, in the Stale 
of Michigan, our college is located, with grounds 
and buildings the just pride of the denomination. 
Under the presidency of Eev. George B. M'Elroy, 
D. D. (whose honored name is affixed with that 
of Dr. Burns, the President of the last General 
Conference to the commission I bear to your 
esteemed body), the college is in a flourishing con- 
dition. The faculty and agencies of Adrian are 
the best our denomination can secure, and still 
larger success is promised. I wish some of your 
English enthusiasm, deep and broad and sacrific- 
ing, could be transferred to our people. We are 
waking, but not yet fully aroused to the impor- 
tance of education. Help us by your prayers. 

One feature of the college management is the 
co-education of the sexes. Our Church recognizes 
woman as an immensely important factor in the sub- 
jugation of the world to Christ. We believe in sanc- 
tified and educated mothers. Surely you will agree 
with us here, for in your own peaceful and enlight- 
ened land, the name you all love to hear — a name 
very dear to us beyond the. water — a name hallowed 



368 Fraternal Methodism. 



in the homes of many nations, and respected by the 
mightiest nations as well — a Christian mother and 
a beloved queen— is Victoria! [Great applause.] 

In close connection with our college is our 
Board of Ministerial Education, organized to assist 
young and worthy men in preparation for pastoral 
work. This enterprise has the unbounded confi- 
dence of our people every where, owing largely to 
the consecration and industry of its corresponding 
secretary, the Eev. James B. Walker, who has 
pioneered the movement from the start. 

Our missionary efforts have not been costly 
enough to make us happy. We are doing a little, 
praying a great deal, and hoping well. Our Board 
of Missions is located at Springfield, Ohio, a center 
of wealth and thrift. The secretary, or chief ex- 
ecutive, the Eev. Charles H. Williams, is active and 
patient in his work, and toils hard for success. 
He is wise in his methods. If the spirit of soul- 
saving were to come down upon us as a baptism 
of fire, our methods would become achievements, 
and our cause would live anew. 

Our Board of Church Extension, located at 
Princeton, Illinois, the Eev. Alexander H. Wid- 
ney,* Secretary, is auxiliary to the Board of Mis- 
sions. All our Boards are well-manned and ag- 
gressive. What we most need is money, men, and 
spiritual power. And these are always needed. 

*Now, 1879, Rev. W. H. Jordan, Corresponding Secretary. 



Methodist New Connection. 369 



Our machinery is excellent — a model, we think, 
worthy of Centennial Exhibition. Bat somehow, 
whenever we begin to exhibit it, it shows to dis- 
advantage. Rather have we learned to talk less 
about our polity, and to pray more for the power 
( from on high. 

I have borne to you this message but imper- 
fectly, I know. The great warm heart of the Meth- 
odist Church holds more love for her favorite sister 
than one poor hesitating tongue can express. You 
are in advance of us in many things, I see. You 
ought to be ahead of us, however, for God gives 
you good morning five or six hours earlier than 
we get it. He gave you education and wealth a 
few generations before we were of age. We look 
to you for light, for counsel, for sympathy, and for 
strength. We put our bared hand in yours, to-day, 
as a child whose task is heavy, out in the forenoon 
sun, and as we feel your responsive grasp, and re- 
member your familiar name, we crave our eldest 
sister's blessing. Your smile will put courage into 
our souls. Your prayers will turn our eyes upward 
for the answer. We love you loyally and well. 

11 blessed work for Jesus ! 
rest at Jesus' feet! 

There toil seems pleasure, 
Our wants are treasure, 
And pain for him is sweet. 
Lord, if we may, 
We '11 serve- another day." 
24 



Address 



TO THE ASSEMBLY * OF THE UNITED METHODIST FKEE 
CHURCH, SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND, JULY 27, 1876. 

Mr. President, — It was my good fortune to be 
present at your public meeting for an hour last 
night, although I missed the opening address, 
which I have no doubt, from the topic and the 
speaker, was a Hollidayf treat to the audience. 

You, Mr. President, in giving utterance to the 
Gospel thought of Christian fellowship, warmed 
my heart and strengthened my faith. The unity 
of the Church, as illustrated by the vine and its 
branches — by the body and its members — is the 
vital unity. It is union of life and for eternal life. 
Then came the added force of an address on the 
union of "knowledge and piety," showing the 
method of each, and the power of both when 
combined. This is the united Methodism which 
makes the man free in deed and in .truth. I take 
it that Brother Myers is a faithful exponent of 
United Methodist freedom, which is the New Tes- 
tament teaching. After this came the appropriate 
closing address of Brother Eows, magnifying the 
living Christ who abideth in all believers, and who 

*This branch of Methodists use the word "Assembly" 
instead of "Conference." t Brother Holliday. 

370 



Methodist Free Church. 371 



is infinitely greater, alive for evermore, than any 
mere abstract or formulated theory which may be 
lettered and bound about him. The Word of the 
Beginning which was with God, which is God 
himself, He is all and in all, blessed for ever. No 
organization, as such, is our Master; but One who 
liveth and who loveth is our master, and all be- 
lievers are brethren. Hearing such grand truths 
spoken last night, I felt that this was none other 
than the house of God, and the stranger within 
your gates was consciously at home. 

I esteem it a great privilege to bring the hearty 
fraternal greetings of the youngest branch of 
Methodism in the United States of America, to the 
youngest branch of Methodism in Great Britain. 
As, in our Republican Confederacy, the separate 
States, while free to manage local affairs, neverthe- 
less form one body, and are a unit in all the essen- 
tials of government, with one flag, one language, 
one currency, one credit, one common interest; 
so, the various component parts of your now United 
Methodist Churches, while free on questions of 
local administration, pastoral service, and temporal 
expediency, are yet one in doctrine, in usage, in 
devotion, and in zeal. You are a confederacy of 
suffraged parishes, and a brotherhood of voting men. 

One of the incorporated sections of your Free and 
United Churches, at one time, I think, was known 
by the same name which associates with our Ameri- 



372 Fraternal Methodism. 



can Eefo rmed Methodism from the beginning in 
1828-30, namely, Methodist Protestant. This link 
of two strong words binds us to you in peculiar 
fraternity, for cover the term, as you have done, 
by syllables of smoother sound, or drop it alto- 
gether, as we .have done, for the sake of brevity or 
compromise, the original Protest against clerical 
superiority and exclusiveness still stands in our 
constitution. The principle, ridiculed at first — 
just as the original doctrinal basis of Methodism 
was ridiculed in Wesley's day — prevails, and is 
honorably magnified. The earnest protest which 
your fathers and our fathers agreed in making, at 
about the same time and under very similar cir- 
cumstances, is now felt in every department of the 
Wesleyan household of faith. The Methodist Epis- 
copal Churches of our own country, North and 
South, have admitted lay-representation as an or- 
thodox principle; and the venerable parent body 
in England finds it accordant with the genius of 
the Deed Poll to allow. her membership to come to 
the polls indeed ! And so the whole world's Meth- 
odism, from Great Britain outward to Ireland, 
America, and Australia, is acknowledging the ex- 
pediency and the justice of the reform. 

Brethren, we greet you, first of all, because you 
are Christians. [Hear, hear.] We believe, not so 
much in apostolic succession from Rome, as in 
successful discipleship from Antioch. Then you 



Methodist Free Church. 373 



are Methodist Christians. And you have gone on 
towards perfection, degree by degree, as Methodist 
Protestant Christians, protesting against prelacy 
and all super- clergian authority in Methodism — 
Free Methodist Protestant Christians, because you 
are unrestricted by any ecclesiastical powers in 
high places — United, Free Methodists, in short, be- 
cause, being of like minds and kindred impulses, 
you associate yourselves in one assembly which 
represents the essential features of all that was 
ever claimed by the Methodist Eeformers of Eng- 
land. [Applause.] 

You are a unit in Gospel liberty, and therefore 
we. greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Truth personified, in whom we all are 
free indeed. We extend to you from beyond the 
Atlantic our confidence, our sympathies, our pray- 
ers, and our love. We recognize you all the more 
sincerely because you adhere to the original Wes- 
leyan — rather the original New Testament — doc- 
trine of full and free salvation, and to the apos- 
tolic polity of equal rights, mutual counsel, and 
unrestricted suffrages in the fellowship of the Gos- 
pel. Jesus Christ, the great Deliverer, compassed 
a complete manhood in his atoning work. He 
taught in all his ministry — and now the Spirit 
emphasizes what he taught — that the human will 
is potent to choose eternal life, that the kingdom 
of heaven is subject to the elective power of men 



374 Fraternal Methodism. 



and women; and if this greatest of all results is 
so conditioned, surely all local and less questions 
may be safely trusted to the individual judgment. 
If a man may, by an exercise of his volition, lift 
himself out of darkness and thrall into the king- 
dom of light and liberty, he may be permitted to 
hold opinions, and to express them by voice, or 
pen, or ballot, after he is in the kingdom! True 
Methodism can not afford to stop short of univer- 
sal suffrage, so long as her pulpits proclaim uni- 
versal love, so long as her hymns are keyed to 
such words as these: 

fl for a thousand tongues to sing 
My great Redeemer's praise;. 
The glories of my God and King, 
The triumphs of his grace. 

He breaks the power of canceled sin, 

He sets the prisoner free; 
His blood can make the foulest clean — 

His blood avails for me." 

It has been my pleasant duty to bear fraternal 
greetings to the Primitive Methodist and the New 
Connection Conferences of England. The former, 
at Newcastle-on-Tyne, gave the stranger a most 
cordial welcome. That branch is next to the Wes- 
leyan body in numbers, and has been blest with a 
larger ratio of accessions during the year, while 
the Wesleyan increase has been unusually great. 
The Primitives are doing a glorious work. For 



Methodist Free Church. 375 



consecration, enthusiasm, and aggressive faith, they 
are unsurpassed. They are like-minded, alert, com- 
bined, and the powers of darkness give way before 
their advancing forces. They fully appreciate the 
rights of private judgment. Ministers and laymen 
find it mutually congenial and profitable to share 
in counsel and in toil. Their field and their agen- 
cies, as one of the grand divisions of Methodism, 
are distinctively their own. The Primitives are 
worthy of all honor, and they have the approval 
of the Master. [Applause.] 

The New Connection Methodists I first met in 
annual conference at Dewsbury. First impressions 
of them were delightful, and further acquaintance 
but added to the joy. They are loyal followers of 
Christ — courageous, loving, cultured, and progress- 
ive. They give special attention to schools, to 
literature, and to moral reforms. While differing 
from the Primitives in certain details of evan- 
gelistic service, they are united in itinerant labor. 
Both these branches are multiplying their educa- 
tional facilities, and emphasizing missionary duty. 
Both differ from the Wesleyans in matters of 
Church polity, from 'each other in minor affairs, 
and from you in some respects. These differences 
seem of sufficient importance to be perpetuated by 
separate organizations. This may be a providen- 
tial order. Deeper than the letter which marks 
the boundary of denomi nationalism, there is the 



376 



Fraternal Methodism. 



spirit of tolerance, brotherly kindness, and peace. 
[Hear, bear.] I beard frequent kind allusions in 
both conferences to your institutions, your labors, 
and your people, as I have already beard among 
you with reference to them. All this is music to 
me. These utterances of reciprocal confidence, 
spoken incidentally and often, all go into an an- 
them of praise in which angels rejoice to blend 
their voices. 

Unity is a more scriptural phrase than union. 
The one is of the spirit. The other may be of the 
letter, and lack the spirit. The several branches 
of Methodism fc may be in unity, although not in 
organic union. Unity is a divine endowment. 
Union may come of outward conditions, or result 
from temporary circumstances. War may compel 
union; unity is the bond of peace. Probably it is 
best that the present lines of separation remain. 
They are not frontier lines, like those I have been 
crossing and recrossing so often on the Continent 
of Europe the last few weeks, where officials in 
regalia come out from their appointed stations to 
search your luggage, peer into your pockets, and 
stare into your countenance. The dividing lines 
of Methodism are rather like the beautiful hedge- 
rows of Old England, with the white blossoms of 
peace decorating the green and hiding the thorns. 
[Applause.] The very separating lines, however 
arbitrary and immovable, add beauty to the land- 



Methodist Free Church. 377 



scape. The fields so divided by hedges belong to 
one estate, perhaps; commonly to one county; 
certainly to one England. They all. pay glad trib- 
ute to the Queen. The feudal walls were stone; 
and the old clan castles bristled with swords and 
spears. But now, in the latter day, Britain is in 
unity, and her peace abideth. Her colonies are as 
her counties, bound in willing ties, and the blos- 
soming hedge-rows are stretching round the world ! 
So, in the great Methodist nationality, there is no 
local proscription, no theological brigandism, no 
searching of individual conscience rights, no levy- 
ing of secular tax, in interchange of membership. 
There is no misunderstanding about extradition 
treaties, for never an outlaw gets out of reach of 
discipline. [Laughter.] Our lines of demarkation 
are not the boundaries between unlike powers; 
there is no antagonism of doctrine, no contradic- 
tion of usage or experience, and hence no limits 
of spiritual intercourse. Methodists, so agreed in 
heart, should be, in life and labors, the most fra- 
ternal people in Christendom. [Hear, hear.] 

In one of the parks at Brussels there is a long 
row of trees around the verge next to the streets, 
so planted and pruned that their branches reach 
out laterally until they interlock, and thus form a 
continuous wall of foliage. The whole life-force 
of the trees is attempted to be trained into this 
living, leafy wall. The boughs which incline to 



378 



Fraternal Methodism. 



shoot upward are either lopped off, or drawn aside 
and forced into the bowery breastwork. The trees 
do not seem to like it. It is not their way, nor 
their Maker's plan concerning them. But the Bel- 
gian artist insists upon this interference in the 
domain of the Infinite Naturalist, and has actually 
succeeded in surrounding the park with a screen 
of leafy blinds, which the stranger either admires 
or deprecates according to his taste. I confess, I 
did not like such a fashion forced among the trees. 
I could have pitied every one of them, laced into 
such cruel corsets. It was disrespectful toward 
creation. It was culture perverted into commu- 
nism. The trees in uniform. Zouave at that, dressed 
into ranks for parade, cropped into heathenish 
uniformity — merely to show a resemblance to a 
board fence painted green, or to serve as a sort of 
immense Venetian blind for beer-drinkers inside 
the park! [Laughter.] It was no part of the 
beauty of Brussels, the fairest city on the Conti- 
nent. It was a forced union. It required the an- 
nihilation of loftiest boughs, and the cramping 
down or clamping up of brandies whose tenden- 
cies were toward liberty and grace. There was 
uniformity; and so there was uniformity in the 
display of coffins in a window just across the 
boulevard. It was simply a piece of horticultural 
malpractice from beginning to end. It was monot- 
onous and melancholy all round and all through. 



Methodist Free Church. 379 



and looked as if fetters were concealed under tho 
surplus leaves. I may have been rude in my im- 
pulses, but I felt like swinging a cleaving-knife 
right through the abnormal mass, and giving those 
trees their liberty. [Applause.] But even should 
their emancipation come, and achieve their freedom, 
the poor trees could not even clap their hands, 
for their arms have been maimed or amputated. 

The Brussels trees in uniform and in bonds may 
serve as an illustration of what might result in 
attempting the organic union of all the branches 
of Methodism the world over. Where radical or 
real differences inhere, it is folly to attempt unifi- 
cation among the tops. There will come waste of 
power, dead wood, sickly leaves, pernicious fruit 
by every such effort. [Hear, hear.] 

In your component parts you are one in the 
germinal principle, one in species, one in order, one 
in every thing vital. You are united at the right 
point, in the things of the Spirit. Your roots, so 
to speak, intertwine in the same soil. This is 
unity. In its sources it may be hidden, but it is 
none the less perceptible, for it is felt rather than 
seen. You do not waste time nor disturb necessary 
results by seeking exact correspondences of opinion 
among yourselves. You see more beauty in a for- 
est fresh from God's touch every Summer, than in 
all the lace-work of Brussels, whether wrought 
of finest flax or woven of the trees. You believe 



380 



Fraternal Methodism. 



the same essential truths, being "rooted and 
grounded in love/' and hence yon are free while 
united. United in Christ Jesus, in whom you 
find eternal life, you are free in the Church in 
which you find daily work. You could not be 
trained to an exact resemblance to either Prim- 
itive, New Connection, Wesleyan, or Episcopal 
Methodism, nor either of these to a parallel with 
yours. Supposing the various divisions of Meth- 
odism to be trees of like leaf or of a common 
group, whoever should undertake to get them in a 
straight row would have his trouble for his pains! 
And even if that were accomplished, what proud 
top boughs here and there would require hewing 
down. If the brick and mortar of meeting-houses 
show such ambition to shoot up into lofty spires, 
with glory on the highest and pily fur the lowest, 
what a rivalry among the trees, the lively trees, 
if such a notion should get into their hearts ! Of 
course, among men and women, such a spirit is 
more manageable! Brethren, where the Gospel is, 
there is liberty. The New Testament every-where 
honors the human conscience, magnifies the indi- 
vidual, develops the largest manhood, and leads 
into the highest life. The Methodism of the Gos- 
pel is simple; and instead of rearing cathedrals 
and ornamenting priests with gaudy parapherna- 
lia, or formulating learned theories, it recognizes 
every human being as a temple already built for the 



Methodist Free Church. 381 



Holy Ghost, and the Scriptures as the all-sufficient 
revelation of truth. This is the temple which, 
when purified and illuminated, becomes the very 
kingdom of heaven on earth. We greet you in 
unity and in liberty as brethren very near akin. 
Ours is a like precious faith, a faith that works, that 
works by love, and overcomes the world. From 
beyond the sea fifty thousand liberal Methodists, for 
whom I speak to-day, sincerely ask your prayers 
that our work in America may be known as yours 
is known — not so much by outward uniformity, by 
architecture, by nicely-adjusted theories, or by any 
lettered regularity, as by hearts made glad, homes 
made holy, children walking in the paths of obe- 
dience and peace, schools radiant with a pure lit- 
erature, communities rejoicing in a Savior's love — 
the whole nation happy, safe, free, united, and 
allegiant to Christ, who is the King of kings and 
Lord of lords. [Applause.] 

The Methodist Church, which I have the honor 
to represent to-day, was formerly known as the 
Methodist Protestant Church. Until the year 1858, 
the Methodist Protestant Church of the United 
States was a unit; but, owing to the slavery ques- 
tion, a division became inevitable. It was hoped 
that the separation should be but a temporary 
one, " until the evil complained of should be put 
away." Our Southern brethren were not advo- 
cates of slavery, or responsible for its existence; 



382 Fraternal Methodism. 

but they could not free themselves from an appear- 
ance of approval, or of indifference, to say the least, 
relative to it; and our brethren of the North were 
bo decided in their hostility to such an institution 
in the Eepublic, and thought it so utterly wrong, 
that there could be no further fellowship with 
those who merely apologized for it. Meantime the 
civil war came upon us, and the North and the 
South were sadly alienated for four dreadful years. 
During this time the two branches of the Meth- 
odist Protestant Church operated independently of 
each other, there being not even an opportunity 
for fraternal intercourse. Those dark and desolate 
years are past, never to return. The terrible storm 
is over, our sky is clear once more — clearer than 
ever — for the "evil complained of" God has put 
away for ever; and no true American, North or 
South, white or black, desires to sec it re-established. 

Immediately after the close of the war, the Nor- 
thern section of the Methodist Protestant Church, 
in an attempted union with the American Wes- 
leyan Connection (one of the minor antislavery, 
anti-secret society branches), agreed to drop the 
word "Protestant." the new organization to be 
known as the Methodist Church. The proposed 
union movement, however, proved almost an entire 
failure. On the eve of final consolidation the Wes- 
leyans rallied, maintained their distinct identity, 
and are a seperate body to this day. Some of their 



Methodist Free Church. 383 



leading ministers joined the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, while a few noble and faithful brethren, 
accepting the mutually arranged basis of union, 
are now among our most efficient pastors and 
teachers, Professors Lowrie and M'Keever, of 
Adrian College, being of the number; and also 
Brothers Baker, of Kansas ; Gregory, of Pittsburgh ; 
Jones, of Missouri, and others. Our Church acted 
in good faith toward the Wesleyans, as if the whole 
body, instead of the few, had finally ratified the 
terms of the union, and at the next General Con- 
ference revised the Discipline according to the 
proposed basis, even to dropping the word " Prot- 
estant," which was a historical and significant part 
of our name. 

This attempt to unite two Church organizations 
which differed in one or two points, as terms of 
communion, was but an effort to unify at the top 
instead of the root. Of course it was abortive. Our 
people, too anxious to trim into a compromise in 
outward things, submitted to the lopping off of a 
symmetrical limb, "Protestant;" and once gone, 
nothing came in to take its place. The other tree 
took to walking! The next time we shall com- 
pare root principles, and ascertain the central 
affinities before lifting the pruning hook among 
the boughs. 

Our denomination has no internal tendencies 
to division. It is a unit in polity, in agency, in 



384 



Fraternal Methodism. 



hope, and in power. TTe are at peace among 
ourselves. We hare conscience liberty, equal 
rights, common and blessed fellowship, with Jesus 
in our midst. We rejoice together in heavenly 
places. The Southern side of the Methodist Prot- 
estant house has had a little unsatisfactory expe- 
rience as well as our own, in an informal nego- 
tiation for union, the courtship of our twin sister 
having been attempted by the Methodist Episcopal 
Church South. The wooers and the wooed were a 
little more timid than we of the North. They did 
not go so far. It was rather an ecclesiastical flir- 
tation than a breach of promise. [Laughter.] Out 
of the correspondence, however, resulted a few 
alienated hearts and restless congregations. But 
essential differences of taste and manners exist 
between Episcopal and Elective Methodism. Until 
these differences are harmonized, organic unifica- 
tion is not probable nor indeed desirable. But 
hearty fraternity already prevails, which is far bet- 
ter than consolidated antipathies. 

In October, 1S75, authorized commissioners 
from the Methodist and the Methodist Protestant 
Churches agreed upon a basis of reunion, and it 
is believed that a majority of the annual confer- 
ences respectively will order a convention to ratify 
the proposed basis, or to devise a better one if pos- 
sible. This amalgamation is normal. It is the 
clear duty of each branch to accept some plan of 



Methodist Free Church. 385 



unified work and influence. Xo sufficient excuse 
for longer separation can be given to inquiring 
strangers, or even to intimate friends. The two 
Churches are one in conception of Gospel rights, 
one in character, in education, in common choices, 
and in Bympathy. The roots of these branches 
were never sundered, wounded, nor transplanted. 
The sunderance was but the parting of tree-tops 
in a storm. All the history, genius, associations 
and tastes of the two bodies are alike — almost 
identical. It is a reproach to us that we have not 
been fully unified before now. Our children at 
home and the world at large wonder at any hesi- 
tation in the accomplishment of this purpose. 
Probably the name of the united and reorganized 
body will be the original one — Methodist Protest- 
ant. So we hope to get our lost bough grafted 
back again, and to grow on to perfection of 
symmetry. 

Together we number about one hundred thou- 
sand members. Each part of this to be reunited 
Church has its own official weekly paper — ours, 
The Methodist Recorder, of Pittsburg. Pennsylvania ; 
theirs, The Methodist Protestant, of Baltimore, Ma- 
ryland. Each branch has its own college ; that of 
the Methodist Protestants being located at West- 
minster, Maryland, and that of the Methodists, at 
Adrian, Michigan. President Ward stands at the 
head of educational interests in the South, and 

25 



386 



Fraternal Methodism.' 



President M'Elroy in the North. Our buildings 
and endowment at Adrian are superior to those of 
our Southern brethren, but they are hopeful of in- 
creased facilities, and the centennial year promises 
gain to us all. 

Our publishing house at Pittsburg is an inter- 
est of special importance to the Church. Our 
Board of Publication, of which John J. Gillespie, 
Esq., is the esteemed and devoted president, is well 
organized and full of courage for aggressive serv- 
ice. Our premises are valuable, being located in 
the heart of the city, under the eaves of our ven- 
erated First Methodist Church, on Fifth Avenue, 
with James Eobinson as publisher, alert, progress- 
ive, and busy. To these headquarters of liberal 
Methodism in the United States all United and Free 
Methodists of England have a cordial invitation. 

A mutual exchange of Church literature would 
be well. I should like to see the books and peri- 
odicals of the several lay -representative Methodist 
bodies of your country generously patronized in 
America. Your experiences, thus expressed, would 
give us strength and comfort. .And possibly some 
of our publications might be of service to you in 
your operations in England and abroad. The mail 
facilities of both countries are now so thorough 
and trustworthy that a larger interchange of let- 
ters, papers, tracts, and books should be expected. 
Thereby links of fraternity should be strength- 



Methodist Free Church. 387 



ened, and the cause so dear to us all would be 
brought more prominently before the world. 
[Hear, hear.] 

We are very near akin in polity. The presi- 
dent of our General Conference, in 1871, was a 
layman, Hon. F. H. Pierpont, of West Virginia, 
and his administration gave universal satisfaction. 
[Applause.] 

Some of your friends, your children, and your 
children's children will be sure to emigrate to the 
United States, and when they leave you, assure 
them that they shall find a welcome from us who 
hold a like precious faith with yourselves. Send 
a deputation over to spy out the promised land. 
Some Caleb and Joshua of your number shall find 
it a safe and pleasant journey, and they will return 
with clusters of grapes worth carrying home as 
samples of Canaan's fertile and comely ground. 
We shall expect you as visitors, as guests, or as 
permanent fellow-citizens, as you elect. 

And now my message has been spoken. You 
have given the stranger a kind reception, even 
anticipating his arrival, and throwing the latch - 
string of a hospitable door all the way over to 
Geneva, in Switzerland, yonder, so that the wan- 
derer might feel his way across a country where 
he could neither talk nor understand. My home 
at the Jessamine Villa has been as delightful as 
its sweet name foretells. Your greetings have 



388 



Fraternal Methodism. 



blessed my heart. I am more grateful than I have 
words to express. It is good to be here. I would 
not build three tabernacles on this mount, but only 
one. I would have Jesus, and Moses, and Elias 
all in the same sanctuary, and Peter, James, and 
John also; and then all British and all American 
Methodists besides, yes, all who love our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and wait in his presence. [Hear, hear.] 
The Gospel is able to transfigure all believers into 
the divine image. We are ascending into the 
holy mountain. The great light is dawning upon 
us. "And it shall come to pass in the last days 
that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be 
established in the top of the mountains, and shall 
be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall 
flow unto it." Just as Christians rise out of the 
valley where prejudice and bigotry obscure as 
mists the upper glory, and get up into a rango 
where the perspective stretches away over the 
hills, sinking them as plains, and away over the 
mountains, making them as little hills — for so faith 
removes mountains by soaring above them — then 
shall be seen the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. 
The Lord's house shall be established. Its founda- 
tions are eternal and immutable. It is an ever- 
lasting habitation. It shall stand when all human 
masonry is turned to dust. 

"Man and his earth 

Are varying day by day ; 



Methodist Free Church. 389 



Truth can not change, nor ever grow 
Feeble and old and gray." 

On the shores of Lake Geneva and upon the 
bordering Alps may be seen the ruins of old cas- 
tles, ivy-covered and desolate in their decay. But 
beyond them, and beyond the high hills that over- 
look them, rising like a palace of marble, whiter 
than the white clouds that, as robed priests, bow 
and worship about it, the glorious Mont Blanc 
stands alone, exalted, changeless, the same in maj- 
esty and splendor as when the first morning glit- 
tered across its snowy summit. It is established 
on the tops of the mountains. Nothing shall re- 
move it, or change it, or stain its royal beauty, for 
it is above all corrupting touch. So the Lord's 
house, built before the foundations of the Alps 
were laid, shall endure. It is established. Voltaire 
and Gibbon both wrote history and philosophy 
on the banks of Geneva. But their works are 
overlaid with dust, while the Bible, half sealed 
when they defamed it, is now wide open all over 
the Continent, and is the counselor in great nations 
of which the proud historians by Geneva never 
dreamed. 

The tribes of the whole earth are coming up 
to the Lord's house. Prom its windows we see 
already Malay, Saxon, Gaul, African, Indian, Es- 
quimaux coming — coming up to the Lord's house 
on the tops of the mountains. [Applause ] All 



390 Fraternal Methodism. 



nations are flowing into it. They seem to come 
slowly; even the angels must grow weary at the 
long delay. But by patience, prayer, and conse- 
crated toil, let us help the struggling millions as 
they come. This is our appointed service, to lift 
men up, to get them into the higher life, and into 
perfect liberty in Christ Jesus. Let us, as Meth- 
odists, be diligent, united, untiring in our itinerant 
toil, and our eyes shall see the great salvation ! 

" Peace, Salem, peace 

Be now within thy gates! 
To thee earth crowds ; on thee 
In grandeur waits. 

Thou holy mount of God ! 

From thee once more ascends 
The incense cloud, the song 

That never ends." 



Address 



to the wesleyan conference, nottingham, eng- 
land, july 28, 1876. 

Mr. President and Brethren of the Wes- 
leyan Conference Assembled, — Dearly beloved in 
the Gospel, you will pardon the seeming presump- 
tion of the younger body speaking first in this 
fraternal correspondence. As a denomination, we 
of course know you better than you know us. 
Our history, our hymns, our usages, as Methodists, 
have come down directly from you; and our hearts 
turn toward you often in love and veneration. 
You, our mother, will therefore excuse our childish 
fancy, rather our sincere desire, to be noticed by 
you. Your attention would encourage, and your 
smiles cheer us in our work. For, as a Church, 
we seek to promote the same cause, preach the 
same Gospel, and share the same joy. Hence we 
venture into your presence, knowing your charity, 
and appreciating your power and efficiency as a 
Church, that we may receive your benediction. 
We have longed for the day when all Methodists, 
the world over, might together magnify the liber- 
ties of the Gospel. [Hear, hear.] And it is with 
unfeigned delight we hail you this day, seeing 
your unity in the things of the spirit, and your 
courage in devising agencies for aggressive work 

391 



392 



Fraternal Methodism. 



in these latter days. I bring you the loyal saluta- 
tion of fifty thousand kindred people who are able 
to give a reason for their hope of salvation through 
the blood of the Lamb. The political disturbances 
which threatened our national unity a few years 
ago had, in 1844, divided the great Methodist Epis- 
copal Church; and, in 1858, the Methodist Prot- 
estant Church also. These separations occurred 
before the civil war; and the alienated sections of 
the Church remain to this day as distinct organi- 
zations. It was an inevitable result, however sad 
and strange it may seem to you that a political 
difficulty should rend asunder the Church of Christ. 
For the Methodist Church, from Wesley's day, had 
made emphatic protest against oppression. As 
earnestly as the founders of Methodism preached 
free salvation they declared against slavery and 
the slave-trade. But when this division did come, 
it was a cause of thanksgiving to be found on the 
right side — the free side, the side of manhood, 
brotherhood, and God. 

Our Southern Methodist friends, Episcopal and 
Protestant, were not advocates of human bondage; 
but few of them even apologized for it. They 
deplored the situation. They were themselves en- 
thralled by political prejudice. They were rather 
to bo pitied than blamed or persecuted. True, 
they chided the Northern Churches for preaching 
politics, because they proclaimed liberty to the 



British Wesleyans. 



393 



captive, and denounced slavery as obnoxious and 
unscriptural. After all, the silence of the South- 
ern Churches may have been quite as politic as 
the utterances of the North. The question would 
rise for solution. The volcano could not be qui- 
eted by sealing-wax. Four millions of human 
beings were in bonds, and the cry went up to 
heaven as if they were all high -priests in the holy 
place. Deliverance came. What the Churches 
could not do, and only blundered by feebly under- 
taking to do, the Almighty did at a stroke of 
President Lincoln's pen. [Hear, hear.] 

You know the history. We remember your 
sympathies with our poor, and your prayers have 
been answered. But it was a dreadful ordeal. 
Only by such costly sacrifice was the permanency 
of American unification made possible. The enemy 
who had divided the Churches was determined to 
divide the Eepublic and ruin all. But righteous- 
ness had victory at last, and Jesus reigns. True 
Americans with true Britons rejoice together that 
slavery is dead. And all Christians say, Amen 
and Amen. [Applause.] The day of peace has 
come. Former things have passed away. "The 
sons of the alien have become our plowmen and 
our vine dressers." "This also cometh forth from 
the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel 
and excellent in working." Fraternity prevails. 
The Methodist Churches of kindred polity are 



394 Fraternal Methodism. 



exchanging deputations, and you helped us all by- 
sending yours to the Methodist Episcopal Church 
this year. 

The Methodist Protestant Church of the South 
and the Methodist Church of the North, once iden- 
tical, have already arranged a basis of reunion. 
[Applause.] Separated for eighteen years, we hope 
soon to be one again and forever. I have no com- 
mission from the Southern branch with whom we 
expect soon to be consolidated; but I assure you 
that they are sound in doctrine, faithful in service, 
sincere in life, and worthy of your esteem. Our 
ministry, like your own, is the New Testament 
eldership, without any third or episcopal order of 
bishops, thus making uniformity of prerogative in 
the sacred office. Our itinerancy is positive, but 
not absolute, the annual conferences having au- 
thority to appoint all pastors, while churches and 
ministers are allowed large liberty of correspond- 
ence beforehand; and where mutual preferences 
are reported, they are usually respected and in- 
dorsed. Ours are a willing, united, and happy 
people, valiant in faith and works. Our college at 
Adrian, Michigan, is equal in real estate, endow- 
ment, and Faculty, to any institution of its age 
and character in the West. Our publishing house 
at Pittsburgh is fairly established. In literary facil- 
ities and achievements you are far beyond us; but 
we use your authors and welcome your publications. 



British Wesley ans. 



395 



In coming from Inverness in the north to Oban 
in the west of Scotland, the traveler passes through 
four beautiful lakes of different elevations, dimen- 
sions, and shapes, each with its own peculiar bound- 
ary of mountains, and its own nearer margin of 
green meadow, flowery ravine, or thicket of wild- 
wood and heather. But then, Loch Ness, Loch 
Lochy, Loch Eil, and Loch. Linnhe, while distinct 
as lakes, are one in their relations to the sea. 
They are so located and so shaped as to suggest in- 
tercommunication. As you look upon the map of 
Scotland, you would imagine them the four sections 
of one river running south-westward to the Atlan- 
tic, so exactly in range with each other do they 
appear, the one pointing to the next from sea to 
sea. No wonder that these lakes have been con- 
nected by a canal, along which vessels of commerce 
and pleasure ply to and fro. The journey, to the 
traveler, is one succession of pleasant surprises, so 
grand is the scenery and so refreshing the atmos- 
phere of lake and mountain. While the Scottish 
lakes maintain their individuality, their relative 
importance is thus magnified and made known. 
While each is rimmed around by its own charac- 
teristic banks, and is full and clear as ever, there 
is a means of transfer from one to the other, and 
this channel of communication, without detracting 
from the dignity of either lake on the line, be- 
comes one of the most useful avenues of the king- 



396 Fraternal Methodism. 



dom, as well as an attraction to the stranger. In 
some such way, as one looks at the map of Chris- 
tendom, do the various Methodist bodies, not only 
in England, but the world over, seem to lie related 
one to another. They may occupy different levels; 
some may be salt and others fresh [laughter], some 
large and others small; but they range around the 
whole earth, as the adjacent lakes stretch across 
the Highlands. Bach has its own peculiar dimen- 
sions and boundaries, its own distinctly marked 
banks and species of shrubbery fringing the shore, 
its own adjacent forest or farm-land scenery; but 
all these Methodist lakes hold a common relation 
to the sea of eternity. Each fulfills its own part in 
the divine order; and not one of them ever freezes 
over. [Hear, hear.] They are navigable all the 
year, and if a Caledonian Canal of fraternity has 
been cut from one to another, it is to be hoped 
that no ecclesiastical water-craft, however royally 
rigged and heavily laden with truth, shall be too 
large to make the passage through. Indeed, the 
senior bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church — 
Bishop Janes, as eminent in word and life as in 
office and service — found his way to our last Gen- 
eral Conference at Princeton, on the prairies, and 
blessed us all by his eloquence and company. Let 
the messengers go and come, and knowledge shall 
be increased. Angels will rejoice at such fellow- 
ship. And now that the Methodist lochs, from 



British Wesleyans. 



397 



Great Britain to Canada and the States, to Australia 
and round to China, the isles, and France, from 
sunsetting to sunrising, are touched together by 
links of fraternity, may the correspondence be per- 
petual. You would help us by a message, and bless 
us by a messenger. For one or both our eyes 
shall often be lifted towards these hills in hope 
and expectation. 

" Love us, though far in flesh disjoined, 
Ye lovers of the Lamb ; 
And ever bear us on your mind, 
Who think and speak the same." 



Address 



TO THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST EPIS- 
COPAL CHURCH SOUTH, LOUISVILLE, KY., MAY 25, 1874. 

Mr. President and Brethren, — This unex- 
pected honor I accept as conferred upon the minor 
Methodism which I represent. In this busy clos- 
ing hour your hearts are beating homeward, and 
I dare not intrude upon "your patience. But your 
characteristic charity may permit a simple state- 
ment touching our Church and its purposes. 

In 1858 the Northern and Western Conferences 
of the Methodist Protestant Church, about twenty 
in number, by conventional action, agreed to sus- 
pend ecclesiastical relations with the Southern 
Conferences, until such time as unity of sentiment 
and co-operation of agencies might again be pos- 
sible. Secular troubles, dark, mighty and unman- 
ageable, threatened our denominational destruction. 
It was a sad day to our people, North and South. 
Subsequent events still more disastrously separated 
the now unsettled little band of lay-representative 
Methodists, until the intervening years largely 
obscured the prospects of the once united and 
happy household of a common faith. But method 
was becoming Methodists, even in the inevitable 
processes of separation. Like your plan of 1844, 
398 



Methodist Episcopal Church South. 399 



our plan of 1858 was one of mutual honor, and 
wrought out in the interest of peace. A division was 
made of the publication interests and of property 
claims, which has been faithfully observed by both 
parties until this day. During these years, when 
the rough world had its way, these two organiza- 
tions, once identical, have operated independently 
of each other, observing fraternal intercourse all 
the while, and each aiming to occupy its own ter- 
ritory, and to prosecute its own legitimate work. 
The authorities have discouraged any interlapping 
of lines, lest they might not fall in pleasant places. 
Here and there, however, local friction has arisen 
from some violation of this plan, and consequent 
disquiet has followed. The irregularities have been 
exceptional. The two Churches are too nearly 
alike to occupy the same ground under different 
names. Our two branches have been at peace, 
and have done equal honor, so far as opportunity 
offered, to the principles espoused by the fathers 
in 1828, in Baltimore, namely: The rights of the 
laity to a participation in the councils of the 
Church. We are all the more assured, sir, that 
this principle was right at the beginning, and now, 
and forever, seeing that, within a few years past, 
the two great Episcopal Methodisms of this country 
have recognized laymen as necessary integral parts 
of their highest courts. Upon your floor the 
voices of eloquent laymen from that same Balti- 



400 Fraternal Methodism. 



more, and from St. Louis, of the new West, and 
from the Chesapeake to the Golden Gate, have 
been heard with profound attention. I am espe- 
cially happy, sir, to see such a large proportion of 
these practical business men mingling in your 
deliberations. You have given us courage and 
strength by your manly Methodism. We take 
your whole warm right hand to the very pulse on 
this question, and are made strong by the grasp. 
You honor your superintendents all the more by 
thus honoring the Methodistic free will which 
votes. It seems eminently proper that Arminian- 
ism, which votes unto everlasting life, should have 
suffrage in the affairs of the probation. We hail 
you as brethren, beloved, indeed, in this liberty 
of the sons of God. 

During the years of suspension the northern 
wing of the Methodist Protestant Church formed 
a partial union with the American Wesleyan Con- 
nection, in the interest of which compact our peo- 
ple consented to cancel the word " Protestant,'* 
forming a new body on a purely Methodistic basis, 
as was hoped. Hence our somewhat nameless 
name. But I am sure that no wrong ambition 
suggested this generic appellation by which we are 
in danger of being obscured altogether. It is the 
result of a compromise in outward forms, with a 
view to magnify the spirit which giveth life. 

We have no bishops, particularly, because our 



Methodist Episcopal Church South. 401 

pastors are all bishops. We have no special pre- 
siding elders, although any elder ma)' preside at 
an annual conference. Our last General Confer- 
ence elected a layman, Hon. F. H. Pierpont, of 
West Virginia, as its presiding officer, and he 
graced the position with almost an episcopal 
dignity. 

Our people number about sixty-five thousand; 
and the Methodist Protestant a little less. Al- 
though organically distinct, we feel that our history 
runs in one current, with a ripple and eddy here 
and there, to be sure, but one in volume, and 
forward evermore. At the General Conference of 
the Methodist Protestant Church, in Lynchburg, 
from which I am now on my way home to Pitts- 
burgh, the question of closer union was discussed 
in the spirit of Christ, and nine commissioners 
were elected to m-eet similar commissioners from 
the Methodist Church, and yours as well, if you so 
desire, with a view to canvass the situation, and, 
if the way be clear, to propose definite plans for a 
nearer relationship, subject, of course, to ratifica- 
tion by the people. The discussion elicited much 
of that enthusiasm and sympathy so beautiful in 
the experience of old-time Methodism ! The ut- 
terances were those of zeal and consecration. 

We have nothing of which to boast in the way 
of missions abroad ; for the present our foreign 

missionary contributions are subject to whatever 

26 - 



402 Fraternal Methodism, 



agency most eloquently pleads for them in our 
Churches and homes ; come and try it. We are 
doing as well as our neighbors of like means for 
the frontier work westward to the Pacific and in 
other waste places. Let me urge California as a 
field for your largest generosity. I am glad to 
know that your standard is planted by the sunset 
sea. Your generous Fitzgerald was my j>ersonal 
friend in that land of promise. 

As a people, we have no hobbies to ride, and 
no crusades except against sin. And in this our 
noble women are actively engaged. Doctrinally, 
we are a unit in the ancient and ample Wcsleyan 
faith — free and full salvation forever. We do not 
protest so much as we affirm, believing the Gospel 
of the Son of God to be the grandest affirmation 
under the sun. The words of truth are glad 
words of great joy. We believe in the all-conquer- 
ing power of this Gospel, and to your labors of 
love, to your unity, your consecration, your vic- 
tories, we respond, Amen ! God has given you a 
goodly heritage, where flowers come early and 
frost touches but gently. You have a royal life, 
and a strong right arm for conquest. Your banner 
is our banner, and it is the banner of love. An- 
gels and archangels move under its folds. Hold 
bravely forward, brethren, and the gates of the 
city shall be lifted for your entrance and ours. 
[Applause.] 



Methodist Episcopal Church South. 403 



We raise no quarrels over syllables. We risk 
nothing on a man's brogue. We raise no tests of 
membership save on the basis of the New Testa- 
ment. That covers the ground of our questioning 
and vigilance. Our Book of Discipline grows 
" smaller by degrees and beautifully less" at every 
General Conference. The Bible comes nearer and 
shines with renewed beauty every day. We have 
no professional heresy-hunters to swing full-hearted 
men on gibbets, or raise the dust of panic in any 
of our invasions into the hosts of sin. I feel the 
atmosphere of your Methodistic spirit. Planted 
first on the lowlands of Georgia, by the hand of 
Wesley himself, it has grown up sound in stalk, 
beautiful in foliage, rich in fruit. May the har- 
vest wave from the eastern to the western sea ! 
[Amen.] 

The other da}', on my way to the Natural 
Bridge, in Virginia, an ex-Confederate soldier, 
whom I chanced to meet on the packet, kindly 
volunteered, if I would go by his home near Lex- 
ington, to give me his company and his carriage 
for fourteen miles across the country to the very 
spot. His hospitality was as open as the sunny 
southern day itself. It was a glorious drive. 
Every-where the eye was delighted with quiet field, 
or distant mountain, or lovely green valley in the 
fresh arrayal of Summer. And. sir, at middny, 
with both my eyes wide open, my friend drove me 



404 



Fraternal Methodism, 



clear over the Natural Bridge, from one end to 
the other, without my knowing it! I was looking 
for an awful chasm, and expecting a nervous thrill. 
My look was too far forward. I was trying to 
match my pitiful ideal with some remote object. 
How utterly mistaken ! The foliage of the trees 
was so dense along the verges, the masonry of the 
Almighty so delicatel}' concealed, the songs of the 
birds so bewitching, that the bridge itself, massive 
and mountainous when seen from the water be- 
low, was unobserved by the stranger looking for 
it in vain, while actually borne by it across the 
deep ravine. 

God has built another bridge. It spans a chasm 
deeper than that of Cedar Creek, in Virginia. But 
this structure, built on the Eock of Ages, is solider 
and safer than any platform that human hands 
can rear. The abutments are eternal. The arch 
is royal and divine. It reaches from mountain to 
mountain, and along its firm floor lies the highway 
to holiness. All the deep alienations of the secu- 
lar and social worlds are compassed over by this 
wonderful bridge. Upon its solid ground you 
have seen, since this conference began, the feet of 
the messengers. We were afraid of the gulf, and 
lo ! it was spanned, and we are face to face in 
Christ Jesus unawares. Blessed be God! We can 
never reconstruct a divided heritage by our puny 
efforts at legislation. Law can not reach here, 



Methodist Episcopal Church South. 405 



but love can. Congress can not reconcile alien- 
ated hearts, but Jesus Christ can, and he will! In 
this way angels pass to and fro, as from Bethel to 
Paradise. As from Bethel, may we look toward 
you of the larger and sunnier land. In some 
sweet Summer noon, when leaves are at their full, 
and flowers bend over the grave's dark brink, hid- 
ing its depth ; when the skies are radiant with 
welcomes, we shall meet and greet again. God's 
dear hand shall lead us on. And in the surprise 
of overjoy we shall not understand it at all. But 
over all our griefs and sorrows God shall lead us 
on. We shall all be on one side by and by, and 
forever, one in name, one in glory, one in Christ 
our Lord. [Amen.] 

I thank you for your patience and your sym- 
pathies. I left a sick-room to be here, and should 
in justice be in that retirement now rather than 
on this platform. May your unity and peace still 
more abound, and may your achievements for 
Christ be multiplied a hundred fold! [Applause.] 



Address 



TO THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST EPIS- 
COPAL CHURCH SOUTH, ATLANTA, GA., MAY 17, 1878. 

Mr. President and Brethren, — It is a pleasant 
duty I come to discharge — to bear to you, in behalf 
of a loving people, a full-hearted message of fra- 
ternity. I regret the absence of the honored lay- 
man of our deputation, brother Thomas J. Finch, 
of Ohio, who has been providentially hindered 
from attending this appointed interview; for we 
who know him well would have shared with you 
his genial spirit. I am happy, however, to be sup- 
ported by my esteemed colleague, Prof. Henderson, 
of Georgia, whose words you will hear with satis- 
faction, and also by Dr. Barr, of Virginia, who 
comes with a warm heart and with eloquent lips 
to speak to this venerable conference, although he 
is very ill this morning. 

Mr. President, we have watched your proceed- 
ings with increasing interest every day. Your 
advanced position on the essential questions of the 
time, your zeal for souls, your determination to 
educate and evangelize the dangerous masses and 
the colored race, your desire to maintain the best 
schools and colleges, and to circulate a pure litera- 
ture, your missionary adventures and achievements 
406 



Methodist Episcopal Church South. 407 



abroad, and your very marked unit}' in all these 
Methodistic movements, have proved your vital 
relation to Christ the living Savior. We feel the 
power of this divine presence in your midst to-day, 
and we know it is the Lord. [Applause.] Breth- 
ren, we come to you bearing the love and confi- 
dence of more than one hundred thousand close 
kindred in Jesus Christ. We claim to be a branch 
of the vine which John Wesley himself planted on 
this Western continent, and in this very State of 
Georgia, before the Eepublic itself was founded. 
Therefore, I may speak, even if but feebly, in be- 
half of a related multitude who are absent. 

Together, this day, brethren, we greet you in 
the name of our Lord Jesus, who is with us always, 
as with you, even to the end of the world. 

The Methodist Protestant Church, in this jubi- 
lee year of her history, after nearly twenty years 
of strange sectional alienation, now greets you a 
reunited brotherhood, haying one year ago most 
happily resumed a blessed organic unity in the 
bonds of peace. [Applause.] You have heard the 
glad tidings. The scenes of that glorious consum- 
mation are beyond language to express. It was to 
us a mount of transfiguration. The garments of 
our Lord were snowy white and glistening, and 
heaven was all about us. Irryour pulpits and by 
your press you congratulated us in the victory of 
our faith. Your sympathies reached us and warmed 



408 



Fraternal Methodism. 



us, and linger with us yet. We are thoroughly 
consolidated — North, South, East and West — hav- 
ing renewed oar allegiance to God ; having learned 
patience, tolerance, and something of a charity 
which thinketh no evil, and having resolved to 
save our own souls and the souls of as many as 
our Lord will give us. Our people are one in the 
Gospel, which makes room for all honest opinions, 
however diverse they may be on non-essential 
things. Within our enlarged household of faith 
the right of private judgment is magnified touching 
matters of expediency, conscience, and interpreta- 
tions of Christian duty. We have learned by the 
very waste of our disputations to be generous to- 
ward our neighbors and to avoid controversies 
which tend toward schism in the body of Christ. 
[Applause.] I think our people are striving to be 
one in spirit, having been wounded sore by an 
awkward handling of the letter that killeth. For 
our years of separation, while humanly inevitable, 
were years of anxiety and pain and loss. But 
now we are ourselves again, ecclesiastically, and 
nothing shall divide us until Jesus conies. 

"He'll know what griefs oppressed us, 
When Jesus comes; 
0, how his arms will rest us, 
When Jesus comes ! " 

Mr. President, we greet you as Christians, as 
Protestants, and as Methodists. This threefold 



Methodist Episcopal Church South. 409 



cord binds us to you and you to us. Alike do we 
contend against infidelity, because we are Chris- 
tians. As with one voice do we cry out against 
the assumptions of popery, because we are Prot- 
estants. And in one glad song do we unite in the 
witnessing of the spirit of justification and sanctifi- 
cation through the blood of the Lamb, because we 
are Methodists. We differ with you in polity, not 
in doctrine. In spiritual things we are one and 
indivisible. Your Bible is our Bible. Your songs 
are our songs, and I wish there were but one book 
of them for all the Methodist world. [Loud ap- 
plause.] Your experience is our experience. Your 
heart is our heart. Your Head is our Head — the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Your life is our life. We are 
members in common, one of another, and in vital 
union with one blessed Lord. And in these essen- 
tial unities, brethren, we greet you in love, and 
bring and claim a benediction. 

The distinctive principles which we emphasize 
as a branch of the Methodist family make us 
respect and honor you, because you differ with us 
in certain outward regulations. You are suited in 
the garb you wear, and it is comely in our eyes, 
on you. We recognize you as a great company of 
believers, content with your name, your home, and 
your order. We especially congratulate you, how- 
ever, on the modification you have indorsed, by 
which these worthy laymen of your Church are 



410 Fraternal Methodism. 



here as counselors and voters to-day. [Applause.] 
Bishop Paine, who presided on that happy frater- 
nal occasion yesterday, in response to the eloquent 
addresses by Dr. Foss and Judge Cumback, pleas- 
antly claimed a prior action in this movement, and 
as having led the Methodist Episcopal Church to 
this ground. It was indeed a noble example; for the 
larger body of the two seems to have imitated one of 
the grandest characteristics of your organization. 
Sometimes even a little child becomes a leader. 
For we claim, being a still smaller body, to have 
led you both in this direction [laughter], because 
the Methodist Protestant Church has had an equal 
number of laymen and ministers in both annual 
and General Conferences, for fifty years. [Amen.] 
Indeed we are a little elated at the popularity of 
this principle, and hope you have the perseverance 
of saints who will press on toward perfection in so 
good a cause ! And to-day, the world's Methodism 
of all branches has adopted the principle of lay 
representation; even the old Wesleyan body of 
England, which I had the honor of visiting in this 
fraternal way, two years ago, from whom you read 
fraternal greetings yesterday — the grandmother 
of us all — has incorporated the measure in her 
organic law, making the victory complete. [Ap- 
plause.] Bishop Paine can well aiford to divide 
honors with us on this question, I am sure. [Bishop 
Paine — Yes, certainly.] This alliance of the laity 



Methodist Episcopal Church South. 411 



with the ministry makes us still nearer akin than 
we were a dozen years ago. 

Your episcopacy we have not; but you have it 
and honor it and use it; and your right it is to 
maintain it. It is yours by adoption and regen- 
eration, rather than by succession. [Applause.] 
Your bishops are holy men of God, and sharers of 
your hardest labor. We would be poor Methodists, 
and still worse Methodist Protestants, to deny your 
right of volition on this question. We greet your 
bishops and pray choicest blessings to attend them 
in their arduous toil. You have chosen your forms 
of government, and we bid you God speed in sav- 
ing souls by your chosen means. And you will 
admit our Arminian birthright of another choice 
of agency, while it is the same Gospel. It is Meth- 
odistic and Protestant, also, to vote in the king- 
dom of Christ. It is a kingdom. And it is a 
democracy. It is both. It is an eternal theoc- 
racy, and it is an immortal republic. 

We do not come to you with a plea for any sort 
of organic union while these honest differences of 
interpretation exist. You could not manage us. 
You have your hands full already with the few you 
have disintegrated. [Laughter.] Besides, you are 
large enough, as a denomination. So we think! And 
yet we should like to surpass you both in numbers 
and in diligent service. Growth in grace is always 
beautiful. The dwarf is the deformity, and not 



412 Fraternal Methodism. 



the giant. Our gain, we trust, is normal and eter- 
nal. To take the Gospel figure of the vine : The 
branching life we live is of God's own planting. 
It asks room, and air, and sun, and darkness in- 
deed, rather than ligatures for artificial and super- 
ficial grouping. This vine outgrows all framed 
trellises, and hides them underneath its own blos- 
soms and leaves and fruit. [Applause.] Truth 
itself is always more comely than its most. fashion- 
able apparel. The names we adopt as convenien- 
ces are individual and local. The features we bear 
must be distinct, every one's from every other's. 
Twin brothers' voices take each a different key in 
most endearing conversation. As in a family, so 
in the Church. Uniformity itself, however sought, 
becomes the peril. And Methodism is none the less 
methodical by recognizing this principle, even at 
risk of wholesome branching. The lives we live 
by faith in the Son of God are the true criteria. 
A horticulturist who seeks uniformity among the 
leaves may keep himself busy with scissors clip- 
ping to secure exact correspondences in size and 
shape; but he is making mischief by his every 
touch among things of life and beauty. And when 
theologians and ecclesiastics strike scissors among 
the growing sects, merely to produce outward 
similarity, they do harm. Not by the leaf at all, 
but by the fruit, is the true discipleship known 
of God and men. 



Methodist Episcopal Church South. 413 



Brethren, let us supplement each other's efforts 
in spreading Scriptural holiness over these lands. 
There is room for us all. But we should not be 
anxious to multiply meeting-houses where there is 
already accommodation for the people. Methodis- 
tic strength is not measured by its pews or spires. 
Overlapping of services wastes money, wastes men, 
wastes religion. Let us not crowd one another 
in the villages. 'Most all small towns have too 
many churches to be very pious! [Laughter.] 
Christianity in wood is dead. Rather let us intel- 
ligently complement each other's forces among the 
populous masses, and along the exposed frontiers, 
and in heathen lands. The various branches, by 
some sort of ecumenical arrangement, it seems to me, 
might profitably study geography for a while, even 
if theology a little less, and learn to keep court- 
eously and apostolically off one another's premises. 
At least the Episcopal Methodisms might! But 
you see the Methodist Protestant Church, as now 
reunited, has this whole continent as her own. 
You two older and larger bodies of Episcopal Meth- 
odism will find us monopolizers of the entire Uni- 
ted States! [Laughter.] And we are like angels, 
upon the earth, you may say, " few and far be- 
tween." Well, entertain us [laughter] here and 
there, at a venture. Do n't despise us. We are 
many enough to love you anywhere. We have 
the disposition to embrace you all— the disposition 



414 



Fraternal Methodism. 



to absorb both the episcopal branches North and 
South. We only lack the capacity, and are a little 
desirous to have the affinities regulated without, 
beforehand. But, brethren, wherever 3-ou meet or 
overtake our Methodist Protestant people, you will 
find brethren who claim your sympathies. We 
bespeak your prayers in their behalf. If they are 
allegiant to our polity, you will be able to serve 
them and they to serve you without risk of loss to 
either organization. 

I remember the visit of two of your bishops to 
Bound Lake, New York, in the Summer of 1874. 
Bishop Kavanaugh stormed our hearts and took 
possession and holds the situation still. Bishop 
Doggett led us to the very doors of heaven by 
his shepherd's crook, and his voice lingers like 
music in our ears to this day. [Applause.] Dr. 
M'Ferrin was among the exultant multitude, glad 
in making others glad by the glad tidings of great 
joy. Dr. Leroy M. Lee, your veteran editor and 
elder, was there, and his grand argument for 
Christ's divinity will staled longer than any gran- 
ite that may mark his grave, when God shall rest 
him from his toil. And Dr. Sargent, too, blest us 
by his ministrations there. A mighty host was 
fed by that lake-side, and no twelve baskets are 
enough to contain the precious fragments of the 
feast. That meeting accomplished much toward 
the reunion of our beloved Church. 



Methodist Episcopal Church South. 415 



More recently you, sir, were in the North, and 
left a potent influence for heart union among be- 
lievers. Dr. Harrison, also, who now so worthily 
fills the place at Congress — not in Congress — once 
graced by our own talented Thomas IL Stockton, 
of peerless power in the pulpit of his day, came 
into some of our chief cities a year ago and 
brought the savor of Jesus's name. These visits 
have all been blessings to us in the cause of fra- 
ternity. We shall always welcome you to our 
homes, our pulpits, and to our hearts. 

Mr. President, as I came toward Atlanta, at 
Manassas I chanced to look into a morning paper. 
My eye fell upon this dispatch from a Southern city: 

" Memorial day was observed here yesterday by ex-union 
and ex-confederate soldiers, and the graves of both were dec- 
orated with flowers. The blue and the gray marched together 
in the same procession. " 

I could not see the next paragraph for the glad 
tears that filled my eyes. My soul said, Amen! 
Oh, bless the Lord, my soul! This is an old bat- 
tle ground, but here is peace. [Applause.] Jesus 
reigns ! 

And along the Midland Kailway, in northern 
and central Virginia, the music of that message 
seemed to thrill the sweet Summer air — peace! 
Where redoubts have been thrown up — and theo- 
logians and ecclesiastics have done such work as 
well as soldiers — and where fields of grain had 



416 Fraternal Methodism. 



been cut deep into the red clay by the wheels and 
hoofs of war, now the green grass has crept over 
all the desolation; and where cannon belched fire 
and death, now the bright flowers are waving in 
beauty on every side. Nature is tenderly cover- 
ing over the last scars and signs of fraternal strife. 
It is the finger of God showing citizens, and all 
people who pass by, how to forgive. If soldiers of 
late opposing armies can strew flowers over all 
graves the same on one day of the year, Meth- 
odists of all branches may march and sing together 
every day and every-where. [Applause.] Heaven 
smiled upon us yesterday, under the receding 
clouds, as Dr. Foss talked with us of our common 
heritage. Through our tears of rejoicing we saw 
rainbows round about the throne, and arching our 
homes. Our honored President of these United 
States speaks words of fraternity, reconciliation, 
and peace, and feels it in his inmost heart. Let 
the Churches sustain him in his policy of peace. 
[Applause.] Our Lord himself is whispering in 
nature, by providence, in the movements of the 
times, and in the Gospel, Be at peace. And the 
Prince of Peace is in our souls this day. Our 
country needs the peace that Jesus gives. The 
Churches owe duties to the literature, the art, the 
commerce and the politics of the American people. 
Together, in Jesus's name, the Methodist branches, 
as now organized in this country might become 



Methodist Episcopal Church South 417 



a mighty power to redeem oar fellow-citizens from 
sin, and to regenerate corrupt parties, to reconcile 
alienated sections, to break down communism, and 
to establish the peace of the Eepublic. 

Mr. President, I shall not weary you with 
statistics. Our membership numbers upwards of 
one hundred and twenty- five thousand, with 
preachers in proportion, or a little over. The peo- 
ple are building churches and parsonages, generally 
in needed places, and giving increased attention to 
missions at home and abroad. 

Mr. President, I have not forgotten the cordial 
greeting the General Conference of this Church 
extended to the passing stranger at Louisville. 
The brotherly kindness of Bishop M'Tyeire on 
that occasion met a deeper response than he ever 
knew. You have cheered us when weary, again 
and again; we have caught warmth from your 
hearts, and courage from your eyes, at every in- 
terview. Since that day of last greetings, now 
four years ago, death has been busy in your ranks. 
Your Hamilton, of classic grace; your Linn, of 
sturdy eloquence; your Myers, of fervent charity; 
your Sehon, of burning zeal; your Munsey, of 
amazing gifts; your Duncan, of profound scholar- 
ship; your Bledsoe, the unequaled polemic, and 
your beloved Marvin, the pre-eminently devoted 
and able minister of Jesus Christ — all are gone. 

If a stranger miss them so, how much more do 

27 



418 



Fraternal Methodism. 



you miss them, who counseled with them for years 
and years! Your venerated Lovick Pierce, whose 
name is dear to us all, is 3-et with you in the flesh, 
but he speaks as one whose voice is heard from 
the rising chariot. May there be Elishas like 
yourself, sir [Bishop Pierce], to succeed all these 
Elijahs, that the work of the Lord cease not upon 
the earth ! [Long continued applause.] 



Address* 



TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THE HON. 
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, AT THE WHITE HOUSE, 
WASHINGTON CITY, MAY 20, 1877. 

Mr. President, — The incidental correspondence 
which called forth from the Chief Executive of 
the United States an expression of interest in the 
unity of kindred Churches has led to this closer 
interview which you so generously permit to-day. 
The occasion is one of unusual significance to more 
than one hundred thousand Christian men and 
women in this land. 

The Methodist Protestant Church, divided, as 
you know, for nearly twenty years, into Northern 
and Southern sections, although from its organiza- 
tion, almost fifty years ago, one in doctrine, policy, 
and in usage, has just consummated, in the city 
of Baltimore, where its denominational history 
began, an official and a complete organic reunion. 
Each branch during these eventful years was an 

* A deputation was appointed by tlie Reunion General Convention of 
the Methodist, Protestant Church, in session at Baltimore, to wait on the 
President of the United States, with fraternal greetings. The deputation 
consisted of Alexander Clark, D. D., Chairman, of Pennsylvania; Rev. 
J. H. Hamilton, of Ohio ; Rev. W. S. Hammond, of Maryland; Rev. E. A. 
Wheat, of New York ; Rev. J. M. P. Ilickerson, of Louisiana; Hon. Judge 
]iibb, of Alabama; Hon. C. W. Button, of Virginia, and Win. Gray, Esq., 
of Ohio. David R. Creamer, Esq., of Baltimore, the well-known hymnol- 
ogist, was also present, by special invitation of the Chairman of the 
Committee. 

419 



420 



Fraternal Methodism, 



independent Church, with its own laws and serv- 
ices. But recent interchange of views and mutual 
concessions touching the points of difference, have 
resulted in the consolidation of the sundered parts; 
and this is the glad tidings of great joy we bring. 

The Church, as now united, sends greeting to 
the President of the United States, and extends 
its confidence and esteem, as by all sections of our 
country represented, and prays the divine blessing 
to attend His Excellency, our beloved President. 
We come, as well, to attest our faith in the emi- 
nently Christian policy thus far indicated by the 
Administration, and to declare thus openly in favor 
of all measures in Church and State, which recog- 
nize the rights of men and communities. We 
come from a united Church — members of a con- 
tinental Methodism, which knows no North, no 
South, no East, no West, as limits to our field or 
boundaries of our work — to bear witness of what 
our eyes have seen of the power, and the joy 
which follow reconciliation. 

The Methodist Protestant Church corresponds 
very nearly in its form of government with that 
of the United States. Our highest officer is a 
President. Our several annual conferences are 
about equal in number to the several confederate 
Commonwealths and Territories; while our union 
of interests, agency, and operations, is a striking 
parallel with that which distinguishes our Eepub- 



Address to President Hayes. 421 



lie from older but not more happy nations, and 
makes it strong, secure, and prosperous, namely: 
Variety in union, unity in variety, and a sover- 
eignty of voting people. There is now an addi- 
tional cause of thanksgiving throughout our united 
Church, that the alienation of years is ended, the 
long-divided brotherhood is in hearty fellowship 
once more, and our strangely interrupted forces 
are free and active to promote His cause, who is 
the very Prince of Peace, and the world's Ee- 
deemer. 

We have been learning lessons of true Gospel 
government from you, sir, our honored President, 
whose mission seems to be to accomplish the recon- 
ciliation of Democracy and Eepublicanism by a 
higher power than politicians ever wielded to 
break the peace. The principles are not essen- 
tially antagonistic; only the interpretations and 
the accidents enter into battle. We thank you, 
sir, for the example you have given us of simple 
confidence in our fellow-citizens, and of adhesion 
to principles that never die. "Charity never fail- 
eth " either in religion or politics. It holds good 
forever in theology and statesmanship. We assure 
you of our sympathies and co-operation in your 
earnest efforts to establish the welfare of all classes, 
all sects, all races, and all conditions of men whose 
citizenship is American. You are attuning a long, 
discordant instrument, whose strings were strained 



422 



Fraternal Methodism. 



and broken by dirges of a dreadful war. But 
already we begin to hear the music of peace. It 
is the voice of a glad harmony, indeed, when for- 
mer foes are singing together, and when mortals 
and angels unite with each other in tributes of 
praise to God, who gives the inspiration. We 
shall ever praj 7 that the King of Peace may reign 
in this great nation; that he may prompt and 
guide you in your arduous duties, and that He 
may reward you in this life, and in that life which 
is to come. May this bright da}" of the new Sum- 
mer, blossoming with beauty, be but as a dawning 
moment of a new era of peace, progress, unifica- 
tion, contentment and good-will — the light that 
shineth on into the noon of the perfect day! 

[The President responded in an eloquent ad- 
dress of about equal length, after the several mem- 
bers of the deputation had each addressed him 
personally, and an hour was subsequently spent in 
social conversation, the President manifesting the 
greatest interest in the movements of the Chris- 
tian Church.] 



FINIS. 



(3 



x 



7* 

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